Insurance.com Expands Fidelity's Online Presence.Financial-services giant Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments is a group of privately held companies in the financial services industry. It is made up by two independent but closely cooperating companies, Fidelity Management and Research Corporation (FMR Co. expanded its reach when Insurance.com, an affiliate that it funded with seed money, opened an insurance marketplace on the Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the . The start-up company start-up company A new business. is a separate, stand-alone (jargon) stand-alone - Capable of operating without other programs, libraries, computers, hardware, networks, etc. Exactly what is absent is presumed to be obvious from context. "We only run Windows on stand-alone PCs because it's too dangerous to run it on networked ones." firm, which is structured and funded with venture capital. Boston-based Fidelity hopes to add to its credibility with existing customers by referring them to this new insurance marketplace, said Lou Geremia, president of Insurance.com. It stands to benefit as an investor if and when the new company has an initial public offering. Several major online insurance marketplaces already exist, including Quotesmith.com, InsWeb and QuickenInsurance. But Insurance. com is different in that it has access to Fidelity's 15 million customers, Geremia said. Fidelity was expected this month to create a link to Insurance.com from its popular fidelity.com Web site. Insurance.com also will market itself through traditional channels, including statements and newsletters to Fidelity customers. Fidelity's latest venture into online commerce comes at a time when "the genie genie: see jinni. An online information and bulletin board service that closed its doors at the end of 1999, much to the dismay of its many users, some of whom were still chatting when the plug was pulled. is out of the bottle," as Conning & Co. put it in recent report, Internet Insurance Distribution. Conning said 50 million shoppers in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. would make Internet purchases by the end of the year. Geremia said the site's name provides an extra advantage over the competition. "We think it will stick because it's so intuitive," he said. "We will play well in search engines, come up high in them." Insurance.com's research shows that no single brand name has captured customers' attention as the standout online insurance marketplace, he said. Geremia said Insurance.com would take a much more personal approach than other Web sites in providing guidance. Advice is based on 14 life events and how they relate to needing insurance covering life, health, auto, home and disability. For Web users comfortable with interacting online, Insurance.com offers a password-protected "personal organizer," a secure electronic filing cabinet in which they can store all of their personal financial information. It also allows users to enter information about their lives. In return, they receive insurance product information. "We want to provide value in a targeted and personalized per·son·al·ize tr.v. per·son·al·ized, per·son·al·iz·ing, per·son·al·iz·es 1. To take (a general remark or characterization) in a personal manner. 2. To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify. manner," Geremia said. |
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