Distribution Briefs

The Consumer Federation of America (Washington, DC) is warning consumers seeking life insurance coverage that the Web may not be the best place to look. The Federation's survey of 25 sites that aggregate and compare life insurance policies found that only six listed the lowest available price, and identified 10 sites providing such poor service that it recommends avoiding them.

Internet sales of stand-alone term insurance is making progress in the UK, according to a survey by London-based GE Frankona Re. With an increase of 8 percent in overall sales in 2000, Internet sales accounted for more than 30,000 policies of 1.5 million total stand-alone term assurance sales, according to the study.

Cupertino, CA-based CRM technology vendor Chordiant has incorporated Marketswitch's Marketing Optimizer technology into its suite of products. The Marketswitch products' decisioning capabilities are designed to improve distributors' ability to better evaluate business opportunities and generate greater return from call-center, Internet, e-mail and direct mail campaigns, according to Chordiant.

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio