EAS Vendor Spotlight on Thomson-West

EAS Vendor Spotlight on Thomson–West

By Charles E. Ritzke

Have you ever needed a copy of a state regulation and needed it "right now?" Maybe you need to know the specific state variations to a National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) model regulation? Or perhaps you need to find out what that cryptic reference to a statute in the objection letter is all about?

This is the first of a series of short articles highlighting individual vendors who provide valuable services to our members. The Entrepreneurial Actuaries Section recruits vendors to participate in our Vendor Referral Program. Many participating vendors provide special discounts or other benefits designed specifically for EAS members. See our Vendor Referral Page for a current listing of participating vendors.

Thomson–West provides online access to insurance research databases of NAIC model, state and federal insurance regulations—not to mention non-insurance related legal databases—through services such as Westlaw® Insurance Compliance, Oden® Insurance Services and Regulations Suite™. While there are several other vendors that provide similar services, Thomson–West has subscription options which I've found to be well suited to the needs of the independent consultant or small business person. If you are like me, you would not use such a service enough to justify spending large fixed fees. So you can purchase, say, unlimited access to a single state's regulations for a reasonable monthly fee, and then pay–as–you–go when you need to do a search beyond that state. Or you can purchase various higher fixed priced options that provide wider unlimited access if you are a more frequent user.

The Web site is pretty easy to use and they have a free 800 number to help you navigate. You can also print or download documents in Word or other formats. Contact Kate Coniglio at 708.949.8075 or Charles Prescott at 815.230.2451 for more information.

Mention that you are a member of the Entrepreneurial Actuaries Section of the Society of Actuaries and receive 15 percent off on any new sale—new or old customer—and one month free for new customers.

The Vendor Referral Program is one of the benefits that the EAS has developed to provide tangible membership value. As a group, we are an attractive target market, so this can be good for you as well as the vendors. If you have vendors you use that you would like to recommend to EAS members, contact me (chuck@myactuary.com) or any section council member for details.

Charles E. Ritzke, FSA, MAAA, is president of Problem Solving Enterprises, Inc. in West Dundee, Ill. and chairman of the Entrepreneurial Actuaries Section. He can be reached at chuck@myactuary.com.