This article from the NYT has a good discussion of some of the challenges facing life insurers.

Willis Group Holdings (NYSE: WSH), the global insurance broker, today published the first installment of its 2009 report, Marketplace Realities and Risk Management Solutions, the company’s long-standing annual series offering commentary and analysis on the insurance marketplace in every major line and select industry sectors.  The report is available, free of charge, on the company’s web site:

http://www.willis.com/What_We_Think/Publications/Marketplace_Realities/

Always an interesting industry perspective.

New ACE Ranking online here:

Click here to rank the solutions you use, and here to view a Webinar about the ACE Rankings.

Matthew Josefowicz will appear as a featured speaker on an upcoming INN webinar on Billing as a Customer Service Tool on Thursday, September 11 at 2 PM EDT. Click here to register.

Matthew also published a Novarica Market Navigator report on billing earlier this year. Click here to view that report.

Check out our newest report type at http://www.novarica.com/acerankings.shtml.

While insurers have many sources of information about potential technology solution providers, from analyst opinions to whitepapers to press articles, none of them provide an independent view of what is most important to all insurer CIOs – peer experience. Our goal is to provide a quantitative, independent average ranking of customer experience across the critical areas of staff, organization, functionality, and technology for each and every significant insurer software solution on the market. The reports provide average scores on 35 different customer satisfaction questions. Unlike other rankings of solution providers, the Novarica ACE Rankings™ are based on the same number of customer survey responses for each solution, and only consider input from insurer executives with direct experience with that solution. Novarica verifies every response with the insurer directly.

Our goal is to create rankings for 100 solutions in the next 12 months.

NEW YORK – Novarica, a research and advisory services firm focused on markets, operations, and technology for insurers and financial institutions, today announced that Chad Hersh, a leading expert on insurance technology strategy with a specialty in policy administration systems, is joining the company.

Mr. Hersh, formerly a senior analyst at Celent, a previously independent analyst firm acquired by Oliver Wyman (part of MMC), will bring his distinctive expertise on the insurance core systems marketplace to Novarica’s clients. He will join the company as a principal, reporting to insurance practice director Matthew Josefowicz, with whom he had worked for many years at Celent prior to its recent acquisition.

During his five years at Celent, Mr. Hersh was the lead author of the firm’s bi-annual policy administration system research reports, and conducted over a dozen core systems replacement evaluation projects for a broad range of insurer clients, from billion dollar life/annuity and property/casualty companies to small regional insurers, as well as numerous other strategy projects.

Mr. Hersh has presented his research at dozens of industry conferences, and written bylines for major industry publications about enterprise vendor selection practices and other topics. He has also worked at AIG, Ernst & Young, and CSC, and has taught e-business and consulting at Rice University.

“Chad Hersh is a leading expert on insurance technology strategy and has a unique knowledge of the policy administration systems marketplace,”comments Matthew Josefowicz. “His expertise will be a tremendous asset to our clients, and I am looking forward to working with him again.”

Mr. Josefowicz and Mr. Hersh will be co-hosting a webinar on “Best Practices in Insurance Software Vendor Selection” on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 2 pm EDT. The webinar is free to the industry: interested parties can register at www.novarica.com.

Mr. Josefowicz and Mr. Hersh will also be presenting at the ACORD/LOMA forum next month in Las Vegas and the IASA annual conference in June in Seattle.

Novarica also announced today that due to strong market demand and its expanding staff, it is ending its discounted “charter client” program at the end of this month. “Since we launched at the beginning of January, we have exceed our own goals for both developing our industry presence and signing new customers,” notes Josefowicz.

Insurance Networking News and Insurance & Technology covered Novarica’s launch in their January issues.

Novantas Launches Insurance Research, Advisory Service
Insurance Networking News, Jan 08

“We are getting away from the subscription model, and have retained an advisory services model in which the agenda is directed by the client,” Josefowicz told INN, “which means the client is under no obligation to purchase research that is not relevant to them.”

New Sources of Advice
Insurance & Technology, Jan 08

“Novarica departs from what Josefowicz refers to as the dominant “Gartneresque” advisory model based on research subscription for one based on an annual retainer that gives clients access to the analyst or consultant.”

Novantas LLC, the leading provider of management consultancy and information services to the financial services industries, today announced the launch of Novarica (www.novarica.com), a research and advisory services subsidiary.

Novarica provides information, insights, and perspective on markets, operations, and technology to the financial services and insurance industries through retained advisory services, published research, and project-based consulting.

“We believe that there is an opportunity to reinvent the way research and advisory services are delivered to financial services and insurance executives,” said Dave Kaytes, a Managing Director at Novantas.

“Novarica’s insurance practice is already providing actionable insights on market and technology issues, peer behaviors, and solution providers to our insurer clients,” said Matthew Josefowicz, the newly-named director of insurance at Novarica. Josefowicz, the founder and former managing director of the insurance practice at analyst firm Celent, joined Novantas last year.

Novarica today announced the publication of two research reports, Key Metrics for Insurer CIOs and Insurance Software Activity 2005-2007: Distribution, Policy Administration, and Workflow, as well as an executive brief, Best Practices in Insurance Software Vendor Selection. Additional research forthcoming this month includes materials on the business value of SOA and on life insurance distribution in China and India, co-authored with Sam Radwan of Novantas, who wrote about the topic in the latest edition of Best Review. All research is available for purchase at www.novarica.com without requiring a subscription.

Novarica also announced the formation of its Insurance Technology Strategy Advisory Board, which is made up independent individuals with deep industry experience. The advisory board holds an annual meeting with Novarica clients and shares its perspective and knowledge with the Novarica core team. Current members of this board include: Judith Campbell, former CIO of NY Life; John Hodge, former CIO of XL Group; Ed McHugh, former CIO of Fidelity Investments Life Insurance; and Jeff Stoll, former CIO of Met Life Individual Business.

Novarica will be presenting and discussing its research at several upcoming industry events, including the PCIAA Executive Roundtable in Naples, Fl on Jan 22, the 1^st Annual Insurance Industry Web Services & SOA Summit in NYC on Jan 23, and the LOMA Emerging Technology Conference in Tampa, FL on Jan 31.

Novarica will also hold a short webinar to present its research on Key Metrics for Insurer CIOs on Jan 17 at 2 pm EST. Interested participants may register at www.novarica.com