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WILLIS EXPANDS, BUYS U.K. UNITS

Insurance broker Willis Group has bought CR King and Partners Ltd. a Northampton, England-based insurance broker with $2.5 million in revenues, Willis has announced. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Mellon Financial Corp.'s Human Resources & Investor Solutions unit and the health unit of Fiserv Inc. will provide health savings account products and services through Fiserv Health's subsidiary, the firms have announced. These administrators, serving more than 4 million members, include Benefit Planners, Benesight Inc., Fiserv Health--Kansas, Fiserv Health--Tennessee, Harrington Benefit Services Inc., and Wausau Benefits.

CHOICE MEDICAL PICKS DIRECTOR

Barbara Dolson has become the new director of account services for CHOICE Medical Management Services LLC, the company has announced. Previously, Dolson oversaw sales for the company, which provides care management services to the workers' compensation industry throughout the Southeast. Prior to joining CHOICE in 2002, Dolson was a national account executive for Concentra..

AIR UPDATES HURRICANE CAT MODEL

AIR Worldwide Corp. has incorporated Florida's recently mandated annual hurricane deductible into its catastrophe modeling system, AIR has announced. The new data means that AIR can analyze the impact of the deductible changes on insurer portfolios. ISO's Property Claim Services unit estimated that Floridaincurred almost $18 billion of the $22 billion total insured losses.

GAB ROBINS EXPANDS BANDWIDTH

Virtela, a networking company, has announced that GAB Robins, a claims services firm, is using Virtela's networking services to connect more than 300 branch offices and 1,000 mobile employees worldwide. The implementation spans all 50 states and Australia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

WORKERS UNFAMILIAR WITH HEALTH ACCOUNTS

Most U.S. workers have neither heard of health savings accounts nor understand how they work, according to a new survey by Watson Wyatt Worldwide. After receiving an explanation of health services accounts, a majority of individuals liked features such as control of funds and lower premiums, but disliked the risk of higher prescription drug payments and deductibles. A survey of nearly 1,000 individuals with health insurance found that 29 percent had heard of health savings accounts, 61 percent had not, and 10 percent were unsure. Health savings accounts allow workers to contribute pretax dollars to an account to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses.

GROUP BUYS ACE RUNOFF UNITS

Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings Ltd. has announced the acquisition of three companies forming part of ACE Ltd.'s Brandywine runoff division. The three companies being acquired are ACE American Reinsurance Co. in the United States, and Brandywine Reinsurance Co. (UK) Ltd. and Brandywine Reinsurance Company S.A.-N.V. in the U.K.

TORT COSTS REACH A RECORD IN 2003

U.S. tort costs reached a record $246 billion in 2003, or approximately $845 per person, according to a study by Tillinghast. Even though this represents a 5.4 percent increase in tort costs from 2002, it's a much slower growth rate than in 2001 and 2002. Tillinghast's U.S. Tort Costs: 2004 Update analyzes tort costs from 1950 through 2003, with projections into 2006. The study found that growth in commercial lines tort costs dropped significantly from 20 percent in 2001 to 5.5 percent in 2003. The study also found that U.S. medical malpractice tort costs totaled $27 billion, or $91 per person, in 2003.

--Compiled by staff from news and wire reports.

March 1, 2005

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