Assurex Brokerages Rapidly Embracing BenefitPoint eInfrastructure Solution.

Business Editors

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 12, 2001

Nineteen Partner Brokerages of the World's Largest Privately Held

Commercial Insurance Brokerage Group are Aggressively Implementing

Company's eCommerce Solution

BenefitPoint, Inc., the leading eInfrastructure company for the distribution and management of employee benefits, announced today that nineteen Assurex International Partner brokerage and consulting firms (representing over $3 billion in benefits premium) have adopted, and are aggressively implementing the BenefitPoint eCommerce solution. Assurex International Group endorsed the BenefitPoint solution for its Partners just six months ago. Assurex brokerage and consulting firms are independently operated, but those that have adopted the BenefitPoint solution are working together to share best practices for rapidly implementing and utilizing the system.

"We are very excited about the endorsement of the Assurex Partners that have adopted the BenefitPoint solution," said Mark A. Pulido, BenefitPoint's chairman, president and chief executive officer, "but we are even more excited about the intensity with which those brokerage and consulting firms are implementing the solution and working toward using it to its fullest potential. This underscores the clear match between Assurex's business objectives and the product functionality and connectivity that the BenefitPoint solution enables."

At Assurex's annual Partner conference in Atlanta, representatives from several brokerage firms gave presentations on the implementation and usage of the BenefitPoint solution. "Never have we seen such a groundswell of interest and support from so many of our Partners in such a short period of time for a technology product that Assurex has endorsed," said Tom Harvey, president of Assurex International. "There is a lot of excitement among the brokerage and consulting firms about the operational efficiencies BenefitPoint's platform is creating, and about the connectivity it brings to the industry in general."

"Benefitpoint is one of the most exciting developments in our employee benefits department and our agency," said Greg LaMair, President of Des Moines, Iowa-based Assurex Partner, LaMair-Mulock-Condon Company. "As we see eCommerce becoming a part of our daily business environment, the functionalities of Benefitpoint in client management and procurement are right on target."

"Hamilton Dorsey Alston Company (HDA) finally has an accurate and consistent employee benefits client database," said Steve Fallon, Senior Vice President of Atlanta-based HDA. "We have recently begun utilizing the RFP functionality and have gotten positive feedback from our carriers, including those that are not yet connected to BenefitPoint. BenefitPoint has helped to streamline the RFP and renewal processes, allowing us more time to focus on other areas of client service."

"Barney and Barney, LLC has made BenefitPoint a part of our everyday life," said Kathy Ybarrondo, Principal and Director, Employee Benefits Group. "The value we are seeing from the use of BenefitPoint is the electronic performance of all our client management duties. This ranges from renewals, to requesting bids, to full requests for proposal, to notifying carriers of products purchased. We believe it is an effective tool for both client management and procurement."

About Assurex

Founded in 1954, Assurex is a unique corporation owned by a select group of independent insurance brokers, strategically located in over 65 cities in the U.S. and Canada. Twenty-three of its 59 U.S. Partners have been ranked among the nation's top 100 insurance brokers by industry trade publication Business Insurance. The group's brokerage and consulting firms deliver property, casualty, surety, life, and employee benefits insurance for large and small clients. The group has preferred relationships with leading domestic and international insurance carriers, including Atlantic Mutual, Chubb, CGU, Fireman's Fund, Fortis, The Hartford, Royal, Kemper, ACE, St. Paul, and UnumProvident. For more information, visit www.assurex.com.

About BenefitPoint, Inc.

BenefitPoint, Inc. delivers the leading Internet-based employee benefits infrastructure for the distribution and management of group insurance and financial products. As the central nervous system of the employee benefits industry, BenefitPoint provides a complete set of B2B services enabling benefits professionals to manage the entire group health insurance and benefits lifecycle. Building on the existing industry relationships among carriers, brokers, employers, and employees, the BenefitPoint solution combines the efficiency of the Internet with the established distribution model of the insurance industry to eliminate paper (saving everyone time and money), to make it possible to deliver more products and services (giving everyone more choices), and to make better information available (enabling everyone to make better decisions).

Releasing its first solution in February 2000, BenefitPoint has already received widespread industry adoption from regional and national insurance carriers as well as from more than 120 of the leading U.S.-based brokerage and consulting firms. The company, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, can be reached at 415.277.5600 or at www.benefitpoint.com. BenefitPoint, Inc. is privately held.

BenefitPoint is a trademark of BenefitPoint, Inc. All other company and product names mentioned here are trademarks of their respective owners.