Carriers & Vendors Making News

Troy Polamalu's Hair Insured for $1M

September 2, 2010

Troy Polamalu, strong safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers, has insured his famous head of hair for $1 million. Insurance company Lloyd's of London awarded Polamalu a policy to insure his instantly recognizable locks, which reportedly haven't been cut in more than seven years.

Polamalu, a spokesman for Head & Shoulders shampoo, will be protected from football-related hair incidents by the policy. Proctor & Gamble, parent company of Head & Shoulders, is paying for the policy, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Officials with Lloyd's, which also insures celebrity assets including Jennifer Lopez's behind and actress America Ferrara's smile, say the policy will cover on-the-field hair damage, but not natural events, such as male-pattern baldness.

OneShield, PURE Partner on Electronic Delivery Solution

August 13, 2010

OneShield Inc. announced its launch of eDelivery in partnership with its client, Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (PURE), a reciprocal insurer dedicated to insuring personal insurance needs and OneShield client. 

OneShield and PURE implemented new workflows into OneShield Dragon—a data-driven insurance underwriting and policy management solution. The changes are designed to enable agents, on behalf of members, to determine how policy documents will be received—on demand, electronically in real-time or printed.

PURE integrated Dragon with a third-party electronic delivery application to distribute secure, authenticated e-mails, the companies said. Instead of logging into a portal to obtain the documents, the system securely delivers policy documents directly to members' e-mails. This eliminates the need for the memorizing of websites, user names or passwords. Members may choose at any time whether to opt-in or out of electronic delivery.

"PURE has a commitment to providing our agents and members with the best service possible while using the most secure means available in the marketplace," says Stuart Tainsky, SVP and CIO for PURE. "Through the secure electronic delivery of policy and billing documents to our policyholders and agent partners, we feel we are providing an innovative method of sending and receiving these sensitive documents."

AIIM, Gimmal Group Develop Microsoft Certificate Program

August 2, 2010

AIIM, a non-profit created to help users manage documents, content, records and business processes, has partnered with Gimmal Group Inc., an IT services firm, to created a certificate program focused on the implementation of Microsoft SharePoint 2010.

According to AIIM, the SharePoint Certificate program, formed independently of Microsoft, is designed to help companies successfully implement the program and teaches organizations how to assess the need for complementary solutions.

“For the 500+ individuals we surveyed there appears to be very little thought given to e-discovery, retention policies, and most of all, classification schemes and metadata standards,” said Bob Larrivee, director and industry advisor at AIIM. “While Microsoft and their partners provide organizations with technical training on the product, they don’t provide guidance on the information management implications of the documents shared and stored within its libraries and team sites.”

The AIIM SharePoint Certificate program is geared toward information management professionals, IT professionals, business analysts, line-of-business managers and consultants, and covers SharePoint 2007 and technologies used in conjunction with the suite. Users can take the program online or in public and private classrooms.

Aon GRIP Reaches Milestone

July 29, 2010

Aon Global Risk Insight Platform (GRIP), a real-time electronic platform that tracks Aon’s placements globally, has hit a new milestone with its 500,000th trade being put through the system since its May 2008 launch, the company reports.

Aon GRIP is a proprietary database of insurance placement data, delivering critical marketplace intelligence to Aon associates and its clients. It is designed to provide insight across carriers, industries and products on every level, from individual transactions to global trends.

The system also enables benchmarking of like risks placed throughout the globe, and at what price, in order to help clients evaluate insurer performance and anticipate shifts in the market. All of this information enables Aon’s broking teams to design an optimum insurance program with the insurers that are best suited to its clients.

InVEST Awards $56,500 in Scholarships

July 12, 2010

InVEST, a scholarship provider for the insurance industry, has given $56,500 in scholarships to 58 high school students who plan to pursue a degree in an insurance-related field.

Ten students from four New York high schools received a total of $10,000 in awards:

·         Erin Baum, Dryden High School, Dryden ($1,500)

·         Zachary LeViere, Dryden High School, Dryden ($1,500)

·         Audrey Ross, Dryden High School, Dryden ($1,500)

·         Stefanie Porter, Charles O. Dickerson High School, Trumansburg ($1,500)

·         Amy Twerwilliger, Dryden High School, Dryden ($1,500)

·         Craig Baleer, West Seneca West Senior High School, West Seneca ($500)

·         Christian Jenne, Dryden High School, Dryden ($500)

·         Cassandra Sherwood, Charles O. Dickerson High School, Trumansburg ($500)

·         Jhonnathan Chang Wu, Murry Bergtraum High School, New York City ($500)

·         Christian Yaeger, Dryden High School, Dryden ($500)

Students submitted essays detailing the InVEST program’s influence on their education plans. All submissions were considered based on the quality of a student’s essay, grade-point average and extracurricular activities. InVEST said its scholarships are used exclusively for educational expenses. 

InVEST scholarships come from the proceeds of the InVEST Silent and Live auction held at the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America’s (IIABA)  Legislative Conference & Convention with goods donated by insurance carriers, agents, brokers, IIABA and it’s New York affiliated IIABNY, a casino night benefit given by the IIABA’s Young Agents Committee (YAC) entitled, “YAC Gives Back: A Benefit for InVEST Scholarships,” and from general contributions.

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