Jobs lost as Zurich goes direct with Endsleigh
July 7, 2011 by Timothy Wilkes · Leave a Comment
Zurich is to return to the direct insurance market in the UK later this year, in strategic partnership with subsidiary Endsleigh.
The insurer’s general business will offer motor and home insurance on aggregators under the Zurich brand, with Endsleigh carrying out sales, servicing and premium collections.
The move forms part of a restructure announced earlier this year, which created three market-facing units: Personal Lines, Commercial Broker, and Zurich Municipal.
According to the firm’s personal lines director, Karl Bedlow: “The new low-cost model recognises the reality of an aggregator-dominated direct personal lines market in the UK.”
In total, 243 jobs will go across customer services, claims, finance and offshore teams, with the group’s Cardiff offices bearing the brunt of the headcount reduction.
However, 43 new roles are being created within Zurich’s property claims and finance operations teams in Whiteley, Hampshire.
News posted: July 7, 2011
Health Law Provisions Draw Compliments, Complaints
July 6, 2011 by Timothy Wilkes · Leave a Comment
Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is urging young voters to support the measure during the upcoming presidential campaign, and former President Bill Clinton said Democrats should have done better defending it in the mid-term election season.
Health Care Law May Aid Rural Towns, Agency Says
An agency that analyzes the economy in the Dakotas and other farm states said in a report Wednesday that the new health care reform law might help rural towns keep their populations. The Center for Rural Affairs of Lyons, Neb., says a key feature in the Affordable Care Act is a rule allowing young adults to remain on parents’ health plans until age 26.
Wedding insurance a must as typical costs nudge £20k
July 5, 2011 by Timothy Wilkes · Leave a Comment
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is reminding pre-nuptial couples to insure their wedding day.
According to the ABI, the cost of the typical wedding is nudging towards £20,000, with the potential to become the most expensive, as well as the happiest, day of a bride and groom’s life.
Common wedding mishaps covered by wedding insurance include: the collapse of the wedding cake into an inedible mush; a bad dose of flu for the happy couple, who are forced to cancel the ceremony; the marquee catching fire; the best man losing the ring(s) and a wardrobe malfunction that leaves the zipper on the wedding dress in the mother of the bride’s hand.
Resolution to close two sites
July 5, 2011 by Timothy Wilkes · Leave a Comment
Resolution Ltd, owner of Friends Life, is reported to be closing its offices in Basingstoke and Manchester by the end of 2012.
The consolidator launched Friends Life earlier this year, following the merger of Friends Provident and AXA UK life business acquired by Resolution last autumn.
Friends Life is currently in the process of relocating its head office to the One New Change development in the City of London, moving from nearby Wood Street.
Around 300 jobs are at risk over the site closures, although redeployment opportunities will exist within the group, according to reports.
News posted: July 6, 2011
Obama pushing for cuts to Social Security, Medicare
July 5, 2011 by Thomas Brownlee · Leave a Comment
This is at once an extraordinary and completely unsurprising headline:
For months, the standard narrative among progressive commentators was that Republicans were outrageously exploiting the debt ceiling deadline to impose drastic entitlement cuts on a resisting and victimized Democratic President (he’s weak in negotiations!), but The Post article makes clear that the driving force behind these cuts is the President himself, who is pushing for even larger spending cuts than the GOP was ready to accept:
President Obama is pressing congressional leaders to consider a far-reaching debt-reduction plan that would force Democrats to accept major changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for Republican support for fresh tax revenue. .