Policy Roundup

Frankfort, Ky.-based Investors Heritage ($433 million in total assets) has joined three other unnamed carriers in issuing life insurance policies under CrailHuntly's (Overland Park, Kan.) Combosurance package -- Basic Permanent. Combosurance allows consumers to simultaneously buy different types of indeterminately priced policies from multiple insurance companies in one package with one premium payment. The carriers involved share the underwriting costs and risk of the total face amount of the policies equally.

Investors Heritage decided to participate in the package last year in order to expand its business, according to CFO Raymond Carr. "We are trying to expand into a different segment of the life market," he says. "We believe the Combosurance package offers an attractive angle to prospective clients in many different economic situations."

To get the Combosurance product to market as quickly as possible, Investors Heritage developed a new universal life product using COSS (Huntersville, N.C.) Life Illustrations. The carrier's proprietary policy administration rating system then was adjusted to issue new policies underwritten by Mid- America Agency Services (MAAS; Omaha, Neb.), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hooper Holmes (Basking Ridge, N.J.), an outsourced risk assessment service company. Investors Heritage's system interfaces with MAAS' system through a Web interface. Applications are submitted to MAAS using ACORD forms. Implementation was completed within six months and the product was released in April.

Along with increasing its exposure in the life insurance market by issuing Combosurance packages, Investors Heritage hopes to achieve a more precise and cost-effective outsourced underwriting process, says Carr.