Financial analysis - the classical and special ratios for insurance industry and how to analyse them.

Operational risk management has been identified as one of the primary risk types that short-term insurance companies will have to deal with on a rigorous basis in the future.

Over the last decade, numerous changes have occurred in the insurance industry due to international expansions and stiff competitiveness. As a result of these changes, employees are suffering from stressful work conditions such as pressure to perform and work-life conflict, which lead to feelings of distrust, tension, strain in interpersonal relations, interpersonal conflict and difficulty in coping with pressure to perform. Tracking and addressing the work wellness of these employees are important to improve their work-related performance, as well as the quality of their service. Burnout, work engagement and workaholism are focal points in this regard. In order to measure these constructs it is important to have valid and reliable instruments. However, there is a lack of research which measures burnout, engagement and workaholism in the South African context. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between burnout, work engagement and workaholism amongst employees in the insurance industry. The research method consisted of a brief literature review and an empirical study. A cross-sectional design was used. An availability sample (N = 153) from employees in the insurance industry was taken. The Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), an adapted version of the Work Addiction Risk Test (AWART), and a biographical questionnaire were administered. The statistical analysis was conducted with the aid of the SPSS program and AMOS program. The statistical method employed in the study consisted of descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha coefficients, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients and a structural equation modelling method. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to determine the significance of differences of workaholism between demographic groups. It was evident in this study that employees in the insurance industry experience workaholism due to their tendency to work long hours overtime, to work weekends and to take work home. Results indicated that work wellness of employees in the insurance industry does comprise well-being (Burnout and Work Engagement) and Workaholism. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Operational risk management has been identified as one of the primary risk types that short-term insurance companies will have to deal with on a rigorous basis in the future.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze how insurance companies work to create value and confidence in their brands and then compare whether consumers perceive brands as companies seek. Method: The study is a gap analysis of both qualitative and quantitative in nature containing both interviews with insurance companies and a survey carried out on consumers. The study has been developed by analytical induction. Data: Consists of interviews with representatives from the insurance companies and survey responses from 99 consumers. Conclusion: From the study it can be concluded that the insurance industry is unique in its kind as a difficulty and complexity is obviously applicable to convey an overall impression to the consumer, which in turn will produce a brand value to the company. Creating a high brand value through good marketing where it maintained a good congruence between firms striving and consumer perception, is according to the scientists complicated because the lack of perceived quality affects the the big picture.

Group insurance could be regarded as a part of employee¡¦s welfare, typically in the study objectives, cross straits have the same culture and race; and a vast of Taiwanese businessmen over there in the recent years, will this fashion transfer from Taiwan and affect with Mainland China--this is one of the study motives. The study objectives are as follows: 1. Using the questionnaires investigation, it examines the affecting factors of management analyses for the group insurance and the demographic variables effects of group insurance purchasing and renewal. 2. Using interview approach, it links with cross straits of managers engaging on group insurance in the practical management frequently meeting difficulties and their related of cooping strategies. 3. Combining the research conclusions and results, it offers the management systems in the application as the suggestions in the cross straits of group insurance industries. The research results are as follows: 1. For the reliability, Taiwan and China¡¦s group insurance of purchasing and renewal consideration factors are more than 0.78. 2. For the validity, the questionnaires refer Huang (2006) and Kuo (2007) or similar contents and aim at the research case company¡¦s characters and modifications so as to fits the content validity. 3. For the correlations, all aspects between cross straits of group insurance purchasing and renewal factors are attained 99% significantly and positively levels. 4. For the differences of group insurance purchasing and renewal, the genders have no significantly different. The monthly incomes exhibit significantly different. The numbers of employees show very significantly different. As for the company¡¦s capital amounts, Taiwan is very significantly different, but China is significantly different.

This study is to investigate the factors for successful training programs in the life insurance industry. From the aspects of curriculum design, instructors¡¦ arrangements, and trainers¡¦ self-evaluation on their efforts in the training program, this study analyzed the trained and on-schedule promoted trainers to understand how much the trainers identify with the program arrangements. This study further pointed out that, on the premise of the same instructors and curriculum, the trainees¡¦ quality and how their supervisors do the mentoring determine if the training program will succeed. This study used the survey and randomly chose 180 trainees to be the research participants, with 143 valid responses. This study concludes some trainees¡¦ and their supervisors¡¦ qualities that tend to generate the training success. The qualities will be used as some referential indicators for recruitment and adjusting curriculum in the future.

The domestic life insurance industry at present is in the steep competition situation. With the fund accumulated rapidly, which investment strategy the life insurance company should take is very important. Law of Insurance 146th puts the restriction on the investment upper limit of the life insurance company. This research will discuss the influence of this investment restriction on life insurance companies¡¦ asset allocation by the samples of Cathay Life Insurance and Shin Kong Life Insurance, and also evaluate the performances of these two life insurance companies. Moreover, under the investment restriction, this research compares the investment rates of return between the optimal portfolios by different portfolio performance measures and the actual portfolios of the two life insurance companies and also shows that which portfolio performance measure is more suitable for life insurance companies to contribute to the decision-making of the life insurance companies about asset allocation. This research utilizes the Efficient Frontier that is inferred from the Markowitz¡¦s portfolio selection model to apply on the Sharpe measure and the IRp measure to achieve the research¡¦s goal mentioned above. The conclusions of this research are as follows: 1. Evaluated by the Sharpe measure, whether there is the investment restriction or not, the difference is small¡FEvaluated by the IRp measure, then there is the higher expected rate of return and better diversification with no investment restriction. 2.The actual rates of return of Cathay Life Insurance and Shin Kong Life Insurance are below the expected rates of returns of their portfolio evaluated be the Sharpe measure and the IRp measure. Moreover, This two measures show that Cathay Life Insurance has the better investment performance then Shin Kong Life Insurance. 3. Under the investment restriction, the differences between the expected rates of return of the optimal portfolio whether by the Sharpe measure or the IRp measure and the investment rates of return of the actual portfolio of these two companies are caused by the influence of the macro economy. 4. If there is no investment restriction, the optimal portfolio of the IRp measure has the better diversification that fits the conservative character of the life insurance companies.

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In 2002, Financial Holding Company Act was executed in Taiwan. In order to provide customers with ¡§one stop shopping¡¨, the act allows financial holding companies to own subsidiaries in different financial areas like banking, life insurance, property insurance and securities. However, to those groups who do not have the above subsidiaries, they meet changes and challenges of a new business condition. The saturation of whole life insurance policies and the decrease of interest rate result in the increase of the insurance premium. In this way, traditional insurance service stops improving. Under such pressure, those non-financial holding insurance companies manage to form strategic partnership with banks to develop bank-assurance market and expand marketing channels and by time achieve the goal of achievement development and stable management. This thesis aims to explore ¡§the operating mode and achievements appraisal of the strategic partnership between insurance industry and banking.¡¨ Because the bank-assurance market of Taiwan has just started, there are no numbers to assess the achievement appraisal. As a result, the thesis discusses the achievement of strategic partnership between insurance companies and banks by interviewing the managers. The research bases on literature review and question design and evaluates the achievement of strategic partnership by examining the motives of launching a strategic partnership, the conditions of choosing a partner and the interaction between both sides. The outcome of research shows, in the process to form strategic partnership, it is the insurance company¡¦s fame and reward system that determine if the insurance company is able to get into the banking system. The more the executives trust each other, the more possible they can co-operate. In the strategic partnership, both sides share resources, which is why bank-assurance expands. The chief aim of strategic partnership is to create profits, then the achievement income. The research also shows that old banks and new banks have different conditions for the strategic partnership. The insurance companies have come up with different strategies regarding their own management and the need of their partner banks. In this way, they can have long-lasting and stable management in bank-assurance.