News

April Electronic Update and Survey for IMSA Friends

Hello IMSA Friends; It is once again time for our monthly electronic update. We have been spending about 50% of our time on the road working with 6 companies who are renewing their IMSA membership. The people at these companies are very excited about using our KP4 IMSA Microsoft Word Software so that they can get a better handle on the monitoring requirements. They are creating a series of Quantitative Exhibits they can use to keep track of their progress on the never-ending road to continuous improvement.

Because all of the documentation can be accommodated on a single CD, both the update and monitoring processes are much more manageable, and executive and key process owners can gain a high comfort level with their performance in each of the areas covered by the IMSA standards. IMSA has given companies a great opportunity to leverage the assessment process into an ongoing validation of the improvements they are making to their policies and procedures.

Deming, the father of continuous improvement in both Japan and the United States, taught that the only way to improve quality is to keep statistics so that you can monitor your company's performance. Our efforts must be "data-driven." By building Quantitative Exhibits from the business metrics you are already using, we can both meet the IMSA ongoing testing requirements and give ourselves a better chance of building world-class performance. And to think that much of this would not be happening except for IMSA!

LIMRA CAP; More Than a Survey

On April 14-15, 2002, I was pleased to attend a LIMRA CAP Users' Conference in Tampa. This was a great learning experience for me. I had, of course, been familiar with the CAP survey program before, since many of the companies we work with use it to satisfy a number of IMSA indicators.

What I didn't realize was how many companies are participating (140) and what a full range of analysis and follow-up the LIMRA CAP program provide. Keep your eye out for more on this in our upcoming Excelsior newsletter. Suffice it to say that I will be recommending this for more companies now that I've seen some of the remarkable results.

Licensing Survey

We have done a few licensing surveys in the past. One of you asked us to follow up this time with these questions: If the agent is not licensed in the state where the insured resides, do you allow the app to be taken:

1. in a state where the agent is licensed, if the insured is present there;
2. over the telephone, if the agent is licensed in the state where the agent is located during the conversation;
3. in a state where the agent is licensed, and the owner (not the insured) of the policy lives
4. same as 3, but where the owner does not live, but is present; and
5. in a state where the agent is licensed, a trust is situated, and the trust owns the policy, regardless of where the trustee lives or is located. And, from the same company, this additional question: Do you require an EIN on irrevocable trust that buys polices? Just put an X in front of the appropriate answers and a "yes" or "no" after the last one. Thanks for your input on this.

Past Updates

• News
• March 2003
• February 2003
• January 2003
• December 2002
• November 2002
• October 2002
• September 2002
• August 2002
• July 2002
• June 2002
• May 2002
• April 2002
  

News From IMSA

In case you haven’t been there, you should take a look at IMSA’s website at imsaethics.org with the following items of interest.

• Introduction
• NAIC Developments
• Advertising and Promotional Activities
• IMSA Summit Meetings
• IMSA Best Practices
• Optional Federal Charter
• Meetings with State Insurance Departments
• IMSA's Strategic Plan
• Visits with Rating Agencies

ACLI Compliance Section Annual Meeting at the Omni Interlocken in Denver, July 10-12, 2002.
We will be there for the Exhibitors Marketplace, as will IMSA. Please stop by our booth and let us know how things are going. Contact Julie Pavlik at the ACLI to register or with questions or comments.

Compliance & Market Conduct Exchange on November 17 through 19, 2002 in New Orleans.
Believe it or not, this conference was our brainchild. We came up with the idea and worked with LOMA to put the first one together in New Orleans back in 1998. Then IMSA Chairman Joe Blair was the keynote speaker and did a great job putting ethical market conduct and IMSA on the map. We hope this year's meeting will be even better.

For more information call Fran McClough at 770-984-6453 or visit the LOMA Home Page.

Antitrust Notice

The Kenneth J. Kalis Company (KJKC) is committed to adhering strictly to the letter and spirit of the antitrust laws. Our communications and flash surveys are designed solely to provide a forum for the expression of various points of view on topics described in the communications or surveys. Under no circumstances shall these tools be used as a means for competing companies or firms to reach any understanding - expressed or implied - which restricts competition or in any way impairs the ability of any organization to exercise independent business judgment regarding matters affecting competition. Accordingly, we ask for and appreciate any observations or sensitivities you may have to any aspect of our communications or surveys that presents a risk from the standpoint of the antitrust laws.