Life insurance sales dropped during the third quarter as new annualized premium for individual coverage fell 11% year over year, according to LIMRA International Inc.

Jackson National Life Insurance Company(R) (Jackson) generated nearly $7.6 billion in total sales and deposits in the first half of 2008, a company record for a six-month reporting period. Jackson's total sales and deposits rose 2 percent over the first half of 2007, driven primarily by a 26-percent increase in institutional product sales and a 121-percent increase in sales of traditional fixed annuities.
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A study evaluating different scenarios that would allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines found that 12 million previously uninsured people would be able to get insurance if there were competition between states. The study was presented during an American Enterprise Institute panel discussion on interstate competition for individual insurance as a way to increase access to the uninsured.

Long Term Care Associates, Inc. today announced the launch of their new long term care sales and support agent website.  "We are pleased to provide our agents with a single, online point of contact for all major long term care insurance carriers.  This is one more way that LTCA can extend its white-glove service to our agents 24/7," said Robert Forman, President of LTCA.
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For the second year in a row, Illinois' largest insurer of physicians has announced its base premium rates will not go up -- the result, many say, of the state's stabilized legal environment brought by a medical malpractice law in 2005 that capped awards for "pain and suffering."

ISMIE Mutual Insurance Co., of Chicago, announced it would not raise the base rates because of a decrease in claim frequency, as well as drops in payouts for verdicts and out-of-court settlements.

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Georgia Insurance Commissioner John W. Oxendine said authorities arrested a Powder Springs insurance agent for allegedly pocketing his clients' premiums instead of paying insurance companies for coverage. Ellery Butler, 49, is charged with three counts of insurance fraud, Oxendine said. Butler worked for Eternity Insurance Agency in Powder Springs, at the time the alleged fraud occurred.

Bail was set at $100,000 cash or bond for a Fargo insurance agent accused in an investment fraud scheme.

Sixty-five-year-old Larry Atkins appeared in Cass County Court on 78 felony counts. He's accused of stealing more than 5 million dollars from clients, many of them over 55 years old.
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Fidelity National Financial Inc. said that it has purchased the Colorado operations of Mercury Cos. Inc., a Denver-based firm that owns title companies. Under the deal, Fidelity National is taking over Security Title, First American Heritage Title, Title America and United Title. In a news release Tuesday that did not disclose terms of the deal, Fidelity said the companies accounted for about 30 percent of Colorado's title insurance market in 2007.

The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. (NYSE: THG) and AIX Holdings, Inc. today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement through which The Hanover will purchase all of the stock of AIX.

Geico, the largest provider of auto insurance in the state, has agreed to withdraw a rate increase request for New York drivers. The insurer had requested a rate increase with the State Insurance Department for Geico and Geico General, which together write more than 75 percent of the company's auto insurance policies in the state. The withdrawal followed a discussion with the state Insurance Department on how higher gas prices are reducing the number of miles New York motorists drive.