In what appears to be a natural development in the evolution of her support of industry technology, Linda Rollings was recently appointed to the position of Industry Advocate by the AMS Users Group (www.amsug.org). Rollings' appointment is expected to provide AMSUG with “one consistent voice and face in the industry, working to impact automation-related issues that benefit AMS Users' Group members.” A major portion of her activities will be directed toward representing AMSUG at industry events and to carriers, vendors, and other agents.
Rollings has over 20 years of agency automation experience. In addition, Rollings was a founding member of the AMS Users Group and has served on nearly every board position and committee, and was the group's first female president.
Within the last few weeks, Rollings and advisors developed advocacy goals and strategies for the year ahead. Those developments and Rollings' assessment of current agency technology issues will be featured next month in a Sounding Line Interview.
A recent IIABA survey showed that “nearly 2.5 million households lost [their homeowners] coverage [over the] past two years. What was billed as a “first-of-its-kind independent consumer survey” also showed that “non-renewals and premium increases are becoming more common in the current homeowners insurance market.”
This news story, short on survey details, but long on helpful advice, is potentially useful to agents who are fielding complaints from their policyholders who have been hit with rate hikes or cancellation notices.
The article offers six recommendations for consumers for protecting their homeowners insurance interests: 1) monitor claims activity; 2) stick to one insurance company instead of jumping around; 3) bundle homeowners insurance with other coverage(s), e.g., auto; 4) consider making home improvements and upgrades; and 5) get a disclosure report when buying a new home. A sixth recommendation offers IIABA's usual advice — consult with an independent agent.
Neither the IIABA news release nor other insurance media outlets' rehashings of it mentioned how the information would be made useful to consumers. Apparently consumers are to stumble across the information themselves. Thus, for the information to be useful for assisting agents in addressing policyholder concerns, it would have been nice to see IIABA offer some kind of support materials — print or Web-based — that could be immediately put to use.
Homeowners insurance issues and rates have been problematic (for several reasons) for several years now and have been heavily reported in other insurance media. While research is important, doing something with or about the conclusions is even better. In this case, assisting agents and their customers would be useful, giving both mileage and legitimacy to the research effort.
For more commentary, see my Thursday, May 22 weblog at www.stevebrightbill.com.
Nexsure, billed as “the insurance industry's first 100 percent Internet-based agency management system” made its official debut at May's annual ACORD Conference. XDimensional Technologies' (XDTI) system, which is based on the Microsoft .NET platform, has been in development and testing since 2000. (Sounding Line featured an interview with XDTI's Craig Fuher and reviewed the system in its August 2002 issue.)
In a recent XDTI press release, the vendor reported that “Microsoft has designated Nexsure as its preferred insurance agency management system.” While I'll give XDTI a pass for its self-promoting boast, it should be noted that XDTI has been heavily involved with Microsoft during its development.
Nevertheless, it's good to see this vendor get some traction in what will surely be an uphill battle for customers in the saturated traditional management system marketplace.
Other recent developments include:
This story, reported in the May 21 edition of BBCNews, includes the subhead, “A woman who is worried her husband might leave her if she loses her looks has insured her face for £100,000.”
I've heard ambitious and enterprising agents say you can insure almost anything as long as someone is willing to underwrite it. But this story takes the proverbial cake.
The story is about Nicole Jones, age 26, of Bristol, England, who is paying £200 a year for a policy that will pay out if she is no longer deemed to be attractive. And who gets to make that determination? Her husband, a builder, and several of his friends. Interestingly, Ms. Jones doesn't consider herself a particularly stunning knockout (a photo was included with the article), but nevertheless wants to maintain her attractiveness as long as possible. Go figure!?!
Unfortunately, the story failed to include any comments from the insurance agent or the company that is insuring the risk. Now, that would have been interesting.
© Copyright 2003 by Sound Internet Strategy. All rights reserved