ACORD Honors InsureHiTech and Royal & SunAlliance USA for XML eBusiness Initiative.

Business/Technology Editors

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2001

InsureHiTech, the Web's first complete eBusiness property and casualty insurance portal designed for mid-sized technology clients, and Royal & SunAlliance USA (NYSE:RSA; LSE:RSA), one of the 20 largest property/casualty insurers in the United States, received the ACORD XML Implementation Champions Award for Property & Casualty this week at the ACORD Technology Conference.

The award honored InsureHiTech and Royal & SunAlliance USA for their co-development of a Web-based interface that uses ACORD XML (Extensible Markup Language) standards to link insurance carriers, brokers and clients. The XML technology allows previously incompatible software systems to exchange information quickly and efficiently via the Web, thus reducing costs, creating large-scale efficiencies and eliminating the need for redundant data entry. Sengen, InsureHiTech's technology partner, also assisted on the system design.

ACORD, a non-profit organization that develops and maintains XML data standards for the insurance and related financial services industries, recognized InsureHiTech and Royal & SunAlliance USA as market leaders in developing and adopting standards critical for competing in today's e-marketplace. Their joint project focuses on Errors and Omissions Liability, one of the key lines of business involved in insuring high-tech and Web-based companies.

"Royal & SunAlliance USA is honored to be recognized by ACORD for our work in creating and establishing XML standards for the insurance industry," said Brenda Ayler-White, E-Relations Manager for the Marketing and Producer Relations unit at Royal & SunAlliance USA. "Projects like this -- developed in conjunction with a business partner like InsureHiTech that is equally committed to technology -- enable us to establish milestones for our industry. The technology we create will be utilized for the greater good of the entire insurance and related financial services industries."

"While most agents and carriers are just now beginning to talk about using XML in a conceptual way, InsureHiTech and Royal & SunAlliance USA are doing it," said Jeff Behm, Chief eBusiness Officer at InsureHiTech. "Instead of being held hostage to the paper process, we can now exchange valuable client data effortlessly via the Web. This isn't an 'eDream'. This is 'eReality'."

About Royal & SunAlliance USA

One of the 20 largest property/casualty insurers in the United States, Royal & SunAlliance USA delivers a variety of client-driven commercial, personal and specialty insurance solutions. Royal & SunAlliance USA is part of London-based Royal & SunAlliance Insurance Group plc (LSE: RSA; NYSE: RSA), which transacts business in more than 130 countries and ranks as one of the 10 largest multi-line insurers in the world with premiums of more than $17 billion.

About InsureHiTech:

InsureHiTech, headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, is licensed in 49 states and Washington, D.C., and is the premier insurance brokerage for New Economy companies. With hundreds of technology clients, InsureHiTech provides risk management and insurance placement services for information technology, new media, biotechnology, environmental, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, medical device and venture capital firms. InsureHiTech created an eBusiness platform for the carrier, agent and customer, that prides itself on being "customer centric." It combines Internet efficiencies and on the ground sales and service teams in a "clicks and bricks" business model. InsureHiTech offers 28 different types of coverage and works with top insurance carriers in the industry including: AIG, Atlantic Mutual Companies, Chubb, Kemper, Royal & SunAlliance USA and The St. Paul Companies. InsureHiTech has been named the Exclusive Sponsored Insurance Broker of the Council of Regional Information Technology Associations (CRITA), which is comprised of 42 IT trade organizations who in turn represent more than 24,000 technology-related companies in the Americas. The company's Web address is http://www.insurehitech.com.