The rapidly expanding Internet economy is redefining the insurance environment. Internet insurance brokers and Internet direct marketing techniques present new challenges and opportunities to existing product distribution channels. Growth in e-commerce and B2B transactions will blur traditional boundaries and have a significant long-term effect on the insurance industry as both a distribution channel and a servicing tool. Increased Internet utilization in the private and public sectors require reengineering insurance products and marketing techniques that address emerging exposure to Internet liability and privacy issues. Financial service reform will also affect traditional distribution channels as competitors with lower cost and improved client access emerge.
This session explores how insurance companies and insurance brokers are positioning themselves for Internet development. Featured speakers will address how traditional distribution channels are responding to the Internet revolution.
Moderator:
Charles A. Bryan
Senior Vice President - Chief Actuary
Nationwide Insurance Company
Panelists:
Steven L. Groot
President
Allstate International
Waymon L. Lynch
Agency Owner
Nationwide Insurance Company
Lauren N. Patch
President and CEO
InsurePoint, Inc.
Mark Cis
Vice President, Strategic Development
CUNA Mutual Group
Mark Benson
Executive Vice President
Cybercomp
Auto Safety, Engineering, and Insurance - As We Begin the 21st Century
Insurers have played an active role in advocating advances that improve the safety performance of vehicles in crashes, particularly with the protection of passengers. But insurers have been one of three major stakeholders in automobile safety improvements. The others are the manufacturers themselves and the federal government. We are now witnessing a transition in the factors that influence driving safety improvements. Initially, many of the improvements were mandated by the federal government, under the auspices of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. More recently these improvements have been spurred by market forces.
This panel will explore the future direction of auto safety improvements, examining the relative contribution of government, manufacturers, and insurers.
Moderator:
Steven F. Goldberg
Senior Vice President
United Services Automobile Association
Panelists:
Brian O’Neill
President
Insurance Institute of Highway Safety
Robert Shelton
Executive Director
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Ron Strassburger
Vice President, Vehicle Safety Harmonization
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers
Financial Services Modernization: Information vs. Privacy Issues
In response to the enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, NAIC President George Nichols III created a Privacy Working Group to give high priority to protecting the privacy of consumers in their dealings with insurance providers under the new law.
Generally, the Act directs state regulatory agencies to establish appropriate standards covering administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that will be followed by financial institutions holding personal financial information provided by consumers. The purpose of such regulatory standards is to ensure the security and confidentiality of consumer information, including protections against anticipated threats or unauthorized access which could result in substantial harm or inconvenience to any customer.
What types of consumer information constitute "nonpublic personal information?" What rights, if any, should consumers have to demand that insurance providers tell them exactly what personal information has been disclosed and to whom it was disclosed?
Will states use the privacy issue to take a "last stand" against federal imposition of uniform standards of regulation?
Moderator:
Michael A. Walters
Consulting Actuary
Tillinghast-Towers Perrin
Panelists:
Debra Ballen
Executive Vice President, Public Policy Management
American Insurance Association
Jeffrey S. Duncan
Legislative Director
Representative Edward J. Markey
Kevin Rampe
Special Deputy Superintendent and General Counsel
New York Insurance Department
Worshipping at the Altar of Shareholder Value
The accelerating pace of convergence within the financial services sector of the economy has exposed the property/casualty insurance industry to a phenomenon that has long been a factor for other industries. Those other industries have evolved to dealing not just with measures like cash flow, operating income, and return on investment, but they have also learned how to cope with shareholder value, a more short-term, subjective measure of an enterprise’s worth.
This panel will explore the implications of the shareholder value concept for property/casualty insurers. Panelists will compare the shareholder value focus with the more traditional emphasis on long-term financial solidity, and effective use of resources.
Moderator
John J. Kollar
Vice President
Insurance Services Office, Inc.
Panelists:
Weston M. Hicks
Managing Director
J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc.
David B. Kelso
CFO
Chubb Group of Insurance Companies
Stephen P. Lowe
Chief Actuary
Tillinghast-Towers Perrin
Kim D. Thorpe
Chief Financial Officer
FPIC Insurance Group Inc.
