---

Contrary to the initial bursts of enthusiasm for dis-intermediated online life insurance sales over the Internet, the focus of leading life practitioners and suppliers is now on driving efficiency and effectiveness in the distribution chain. Processes traditionally confined within the four walls of an organization are being extended and shared with others in the the distribution channel.

This half-day seminar showcases the HOW technology has been and continues to be a key element in the evolution of Life Distribution.

Seminar Topics

8:00 – 8:30: Registration and Coffee

8:30	Welcome: Doug Grant Insurance-Canada.ca
	Distribution Trends in the Canadian Marketplace - Harv Luthra, Associate Partner, IBM Business Consulting Services, IBM Canada
	New Technologies are Changing the landscape of Insurance Distribution - Al Blitzstein, President, CPU Tracker Software
New technologies are giving developers (vendors), and your brokers, companies and other intermediaries, cost-effective ways of doing things that could not be done in the past. "XML for Life" tools that are being introduced include a new Web Interface design that is capable of communicating directly with your insurance / financial carriers from your existing web portal. Your investment advisors equipped with their own XML for Life compatible database will gain secured access via your web host server to the XML for Life data. A variety of products and services are now available, or are being introduced, for different players involved in life distribution. These types of products are changing the landscape of life insurance distribution, through more efficiencies and new functions. Al will review some of these new technologies and how they are changing his products, as a vendor, and how those products are impacting the participants in the distribution channels.
9:40	break
	"Knock Down that Wall!" - Tim Fitzpatrick, President, CoVirt Inc.
The world of financial services is dramatically reshaping itself and moving away from traditional brick-and-mortar to focus on improved customer service, and 24-hour-a-day access to information and transactions. Banks are educating consumers on how advanced technology can lower costs while improving the level of customer service through the Internet. The number of transactions monthly via traditional branches continues to decline while transactions performed through the Internet continue to increase. Life insurance distribution is about broker acquisition, broker retention and the efficient processing of new business. The brokers are struggling to get information and underwriting decisions to clients in a reasonable time frame. Unfortunately, most life insurance technology is likely a mix of aging and disconnected back office, sales and service systems that can hinder your broker's success rates and hurt the bottom line of agencies and carriers. There is a time lag in your processes where information flows from the carrier to the MGA and from the MGA to the broker. Brokers, who often work evenings and weekends, are constantly seeking ways to survive in a highly competitive field and are turning to those technology solutions that deliver improved service and offer services anywhere, anytime. CoVirt believes that any customer service system can, and should be, replaced by browser-based Internet services, which dually provides superior service while at the same time reduces internal resource requirements. Tim Fitzpatrick will describe CoVirt's experience in providing Internet based systems that consolidates and streamlines such services to brokers, providing instantaneous information with one stop access to policy and contracting / commission information, including documents online and integration with carrier data.
	Enhancing the Insurance Value Chain and Utilizing your Compensation Information - Mike Donati, VP, Strategic Directions, DSPA Software Inc.
In today's life insurance distribution environment, compensation of the producers is as or more important than ever. Like so many functions, it is increasingly computerized, and the ability to communicate compensation information among the parties involved can provide a competitive advantage, for both cost and marketing reasons. From DSPA's core strength, Mike will discus technology and compensation, touching on: Achieving interoperability through the use of ACORD's "XML for Life" data standards Utilizing and leveraging your distribution database Centralizing distribution processes within your Compensation system Seamlessly integrating your Compensation system and your Admin systems Future Compensation functionalities
	Channel Analysis and Management - Dimo Dzoutzidis, Director, Systems Development, National Life - James Barber, Client Executive, Insurance, Information Builders
National Life has had a good application to do sales reporting for their business. Like every other application however, there was a list of requirements for improvements. National Life elected to contract Information Builders Inc. to help implement the next generation. With very aggressive cost and timeframe objectives, they went live in June with a sales reporting system which reports across all lines of business, deploys easily to all users in a simple way, is easier to maintain and enhance for the IT department, and provides better information to people when they need it. Dimo and James will discuss the application and the implementation.
11:20	break
	Enabling Customer Service in Distributed Environments - Michael Brown, Vice-President, Canadian and European Sales, Solcorp
In the midst of expanding distribution channels, M&A activity and blurring lines between financial service sectors, both carriers and customer representatives are battling to retain customers. From front to back, the technology landscape is rapidly changing, making effective customer service a challenge.
	Breaking the Data Logjam: A Perspective from Distribution - Jack Brown, Vice-President, Information Technology, PPI Financial Group
The promise of vastly improved data and information exchange between Life Insurance Distribution and Life Companies has been touted for a long while, from well before the Internet days. Life Companies, Distributors and Software Vendors all seem keen to improve efficiencies between business partners, but the data and information are not flowing in the volumes, the variety and with the technologies that they should or could be. Although he is from PPI, Jack will speak for distributors as a whole and discuss their perspective on what is causing the "Logjam" and some of the strategies underway to resolve these issues.
12:40	Close: by Doug Grant Insurance-Canada.ca

Seminar Sponsors:

Speaker Information

James Barber, Client Executive, Insurance,Information Builders

Before joining Information Builders, James held several sales, marketing and channel management positions in his 10 years at IBM. Before that, James completed his Electrical Engineering Degree from University of Waterloo, and an MBA from Sir Wilfred Laurier University.

Al Blitzstein, President, CPU Tracker Software

Since 1990 Allan has been involved in the life insurance industry starting out as a career agent with Standard Life of Canada. It was during this initial period as a captive agent that Allan recognized the importance of business administration and how it affected his business. Having made the decision to become an independent life insurance broker, Allan decided to automate his business by developing a business strategy that would allow him to maintain his operation at the level of management that he had grown accustomed to during his years as an entrepreneur. Allan created, designed and developed an insurance client management system known as CPU Tracker Software. CPU Tracker Software has been leading the Canadian insurance industry on database product solutions for the past ten years.

Jack Brown, Vice-President, Information Technology, PPI Financial Group

With a combined background in life insurance and technology, Jack Brown has brought his vision of technology as an ideal tool for the financial services environment. Jack has served as an agent and then a partner in a general agency in Vancouver.

His growing interest in technology and its applications within financial services led him to establish Licom Services Ltd. in 1978 which focused specifically on the development of software for insurance agents. In this role he oversaw the production of product illustration software, product comparison software, financial planning programs, commission accounting packages and group insurance comparison software.

In 1984, he joined PPI with responsibility for all aspects of computer implementation within the company. Jack is currently the Vice-President, Information Technology, heading a division that continues to develop technological tools that enhance service capabilities and improve communication. He is a member of CALU (Conference for Advanced Life Underwriting) and CAIFA (Canadian Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors). Jack is on the Board of Directors for CLIEDIS, the Canadian Life Insurance Standards Association and on the Life Steering Committee for ACORD, a global standards organization. It is through these organizations that Jack has been advocating for a more efficient exchange of data between business partners in the Canadian Life Insurance industry.

Jack has given many technology presentations including events sponsored by CAIFA, CLU, CALU and Top of the Table. He is a regular contributor to a range of industry publications providing articles and insight on technology and its applications.

Michael Brown, Vice President Canadian and European Sales, Solcorp

Mike Brown is the Vice President of Canadian and European Sales for SOLCORP, and has been with SOLCORP for the past 9 years in different sales capacities in SOLCORP's regions throughout the world. In his present position, Mike reports directly to the Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, and is responsible for managing SOLCORP's regional sales teams in Canada and Europe to capitalize on the opportunity for growth and expansion of the business in these geographical regions. Mike also focuses on further developing the relationship with SOLCORP's parent company, EDS, to develop additional business and service offerings for Canada and Europe.

Before joining SOLCORP, Mike worked in the insurance and insurance IT business for an additional 8 years.

About SOLCORP: SOLCORP, a wholly owned subsidiary of EDS, is a global leader in software solutions and services for the life insurance and wealth management industries. SOLCORP solutions help customers reduce their total cost of administration, accelerate the introduction of new products to the market, and streamline infrastructure through the migration and consolidation of existing products. SOLCORP / INGENIUM® is a high-performance, web services-enabled policy administration system that scales to high-volume environments, providing full-function processing for an extensive range of life and investment products. SOLCORP / ProductXpressÔ is a scalable enterprise platform that allows IT to develop and implement reusable calculations across multiple applications. Visit SOLCORP on the Web at www.solcorp.com.

Mike Donati, VP, Strategic Directions, DSPA Software Inc.

Dimo Dzoutzidis, Director, Systems Development, National Life

Dimo has spent his 25 year career in the Information Technology field, with several Life Insurers. His experience spans development, operations, systems, applications, and business support. He is currently the Director of Systems development, reporting to a SVP who is in charge of Individual Lines of Business and all of IT.

Tim Fitzpatrick, President, CoVirt Inc.

With 32 years of experience and formerly Vice President and Actuary of the Financial Life Assurance Company, Tim has had many roles with a specialty in life insurance product development from top to bottom, product marketing and actuarial services, representing multiple life insurance companies on issues of product development to their brokers, parent companies and their reinsurers. His consulting firm supported numerous life insurance carriers on their life insurance product development and modeling software including simulation models for planning, regulatory compliance and asset / liability management and designed and launched a unique third party national marketing and servicing organization that restructured the life insurance delivery process by performing the traditional life company functions of product design, underwriting, policy issue, policy owner service and premium collection. Since 2000, Tim Fitzpatrick has been President of CoVirt Inc., which provides a fully Internet-based integrated life insurance and investment agency management system.

Harv Luthra, Associate Partner, IBM Business Consulting Services, IBM Canada

Harv Luthra is a strategic and visionary thinker with twenty five years of experience in marketing, sales and consulting in the Financial Services industry. He has a thorough understanding of industry issues, challenges and solution options.

Mr. Luthra worked as a Vice-president of Marketing and Technology at a large Financial Services company. He was responsible for management of the marketing operation and development of applications for the Individual Division. As a member of the executive team , he actively participated in the implementation a new organization structure to consolidate functions and establish clear accountabilities. He provided innovative ideas to revitalize the agency distribution channel, establish alternate distribution channels, and managed potential conflicts .

Harv was hired as a consultant to analyze the Group Operation of a major life insurance company. All recommendations of this engagement were implemented, resulting in major cost saving and strong marketing and sales organization.

At a Canadian Financial Services company, he lead a planning process to align I/T strategy with business initiatives and direction. During this project, he used Michael Porters Model to analyze the Financial Services industry and compared business strategies with industry trends. The process was effective in prioritizing I/T initiatives and for developing business cases for critical unfunded projects.

Mr. Luthra received a Masters in Business Administration from York University and Masters in Industrial Engineering from University of Toronto. Mr. Luthra also completed Client Executive certification program sponsored by IBM/Harvard Business School.

Hosts and Moderators

Doug Grant MBA CIP, Consultant, Insurance-Canada.ca

As a keen analyst of computer and networking evolution for more than thirty years, and the opportunity and impact on the insurance industry, frequent industry speaker, columnist, and consultant. Doug is cognizant of the changes that are occurring in the Internet insurance world. As a principal in the Insurance-Canada.ca Web site, he brings a unique perspective to the session. For a more extensive biography.

Doug will be host of the seminar and will welcome and set the stage, build the linkages between topics, and then provide conclusions and points to ponder at the end of the session.

(Examples will be used throughout)

Questions? call Doug Grant 416-921-7756 or email at doug.grant@insurance-canada.ca

See a list of our Previous Seminars.

[ Announcement Flyer | Speakers and Topics | Online Registration | Registration Form ]