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Obesity is linked with higher injury rates for employees on the job, as well as extra expense when it comes to healthcare. In other words, extra pounds equals extra claims frequency and severity. On the other hand, claims fraud is one factor that's no surprise when it comes to extra expenses.

The world of workers' compensation is evolving. Keep up, first, by learning how to handle the basics--buying coverage in the up and down cycles that have driven and probably will always drive pricing. Then discover what's driving regulatory changes in the present--the redefinition of second injury funds in states around the country. Finally, explore the cutting-edge of disability: behavioral health and the APA's new tools to manage it.

Lloyd's of London or Beijing? The leader of Western reinsurers' push into China reveals a little bit more about its China strategy. Meanwhile, American multinationals and other aging companies consider ART strategies for one of their most pressing financial liabilities--employee pensions.

On one side of the equation, you have healthcare facilities feeling the relief of loosening med-mal coverage--yet confronting emerging risks like digital privacy and cybersecurity. On the other, you have employers enjoying more control over their employees' health benefits, yet getting squeezed between profit-seeking BUCAs and progressive Washington politicians. Healthcare issues keep getting different, but they stay the same pain.

Innovation in insurance? Some would contend that's an oxymoron. Others that insurance was one of the most innovative financial services products ever created. We spent nearly an entire issue on the topic--on products, technology, underwriting, alternative risk--and can say that even we were surprised by some of our own answers to this question.

Insurance and reinsurance companies are turning to ERM to attempt to ride out the waves of the pricing cycle, the current softening included, to make their businesses more successful and stable. And if they don't, the ratings agencies are right there to give them demerits.

Captives are building interest in the construction biz, and they're a life-saver for life insurers. No wonder domestic domiciles such as Vermont and South Carolina are trying to stake their claim as home to these self-sufficient insurance companies.

The insurance industry supposedly has a recruitment and retention issue when it comes to claims personnel. Is this true? And if it isn't, can today's claims staff handle the catastrophic claims resulting from astronomical health-care costs?

Not only do companies have to make sure they tackle the demands of an ever-increasing reliance on technology and data and increasingly creaky legacy systems. They must be properly insured in case they miss the tackle.

We decided to write about risks that managers would be most likely to overlook. The risks listed in the pages that follow are not necessarily the rarest risks, those with an infinitesimal chance of occurring, but risks that have a high relative chance of being ignored.

How can insurance companies upgrade their technology systems to become a closer approximation of the "model carrier"?

Our first annual Reinsurance Power Broker^TM listing breaks down the awards into six categories. Because of the intense, analytical and interpersonal nature of the business, we did not put the focus entirely on the individual broker, but also highlight the strengths of the brokerage firms in those categories.

Home builders have been actively forming captives, along with several other industries that are also showing more interest, such as hospitals and physician groups, insurance companies and real-estate owners. A growing number of captives are also being formed in order to provide employees with health insurance benefits.

Perceptions shifted markedly in 2006 about the risks and rewards of replacing core claims administration legacy systems. The new generation of claims administration software has proven to be viable, because it provides processing efficiencies and better service, and supports better decision-making.

It is an old story with an always cutting-edge twist: insurance companies trying to ditch their legacy systems for a saving-grace technology. This year's twist: Carriers updating their legacy claims systems need to choose the right platform and software vendor--but more importantly, the architecture the system is built upon.