Suppose a local bedroom community just finished an Insurance Services Office (ISO) public protection classification inspection and was...

Globalization and technology have affected every industry, including insurance. This has moved ACORD to participate in organizations and program...

CLAIM PROCEDURAL GUIDELINES by Mary Beth Bolen Of all the things a customer service representative (CSR) does for clients, you and the agency are most directly affected by the clients' receptio...

COMPUTERIZED RECORDS: NEW E&O CONCERNS? Over the last few years, the Independent Agency System has focused on the role of automation in the agency and marketplace. Emphasis has been placed on adaptin...

INDUSTRY TECHNOLOGY EVENTS: REVELATION OR REPETITION? by Greg Maciag The insurance industry has spawned enough conventions and seminars to keep you busy year-round. And technology issues are...

In the next few years, you'll probably be devoting more time and resources to Life and Health insurance products - that is, if you're at all like the estimated 2,000 independent agents who participated in the "Future One Agency Universe Study."

The study shows that independent agents are increasingly aware of the need to be full-service insurance providers. Agents who have traditionally focused on Property/Casualty insurance see the need to expand more aggressively into Life and other types of insurance products. In fact, slightly more than half the agencies surveyed said that over the next three years, they'll devote a higher proportion of agency resources to Life and Health products.

It's a world in which insurance is converging with financial services, virtual companies are challenging traditional suppliers for market space, and agencies and brokerages are feeling the competition from new distribution channels.

In the realm of technology, Don Tapscott, keynote speaker for ACORD Technology Conference '97, holds the crystal ball. His book, The Digital Economy, has influenced the direction of automation in the corporate world. Excerpts from an interview with Tapscott, published in In ACORD magazine, follow.

Today we are witnessing the early, turbulent days of a revolution as significant as any other in human history. A new medium of human communications is emerging, one that may prove to surpass all previous revolutions, including the printing press, telephone, television, computer, in its impact on our economic and social life.

THREE STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL BRANDING by Larry Acord Independent agents often ask, Don't I have to be a large agency t...