Pandemic planning lags in North America.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Insurance - Brief article

Maybe it's a simple matter of proximity to the disease, but North American life insurance companies lag behind their international counterparts in their preparation for a possible avian influenza pandemic. That's according to LOMA, the insurance research group once known as the Life Officers Management Association.

The LOMA-sponsored survey found that about one-third of North American life insurers have plans in place to address a flu pandemic. In contrast, more than half of life insurers elsewhere have pandemic programs. Asian companies were particularly likely to have formulated such plans.

LOMA's survey was distributed to its members in North America and in the rest of the world. There were 155 responses, more than one-quarter of which were from outside North America, chiefly from Asia.

In general...