Product of the month - Home insurance for the loft-living generation

Product: Axa Extra - Home Insurance with Extra Peace of Mind

Underwriter: Axa Insurance

Commission paid: 20% standard commission

Coverage: A quality home insurance product, available exclusively through brokers. This product is targeted at customers who like to live life to the full and who spend their money on things that make them feel good. Typified by people who have an iPod, designer clothes, plasma screen and generally the loft-living generation.

Minimum premium: £50 excluding IPT

Excess: £100

Contact: Your Axa account manager

Key benefits: Automatic £50,000 contents cover and extra high cover for valuables - covers up to 40% of total contents sum insured with a single article limit of 20% of the contents sum insured; worldwide personal possessions cover available up to £10,000 for a single item, removing the need to specify each item; optional buildings insurance - automatic sum insured of £250,000; automatic 10% extra contents cover for religious festivals and weddings; extra cover for garden furniture and plants; contents cover extended to students living away from home and to include business equipment - up to £5,000; optional family legal protection and home assistance cover available - includes £50,000 legal costs and expenses and £1,000 for repairs in the event of an emergency; bedroom rated for straightforward quoting; available exclusively through brokers via the full cycle EDI.

Comments: Ian Mantel of Manor Insurance Services said: "It's good to see Axa trying to support the broker again and this product seems at first glance to add another tool to our armoury. The idea of full-cycle EDI-only suits me down to the ground. Axa is very proud that this is a policy for the 2000s. It includes MP3 players in its description of entertainment equipment and it has recognised the need to protect sensible levels of contents in the garden. A little disappointed at the minimum £100 excess, but having said this at least it is offering £50,000 contents as standard. Also good is the £10,000 single article limit under the personal possessions section."Overall rating: Very Good.

Product: Enabler email marketing service by Pancentric

Coverage: UK and Europe

Contact: Pancentric, 3-5 Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, Fitzhugh Grove, London, SW18 3SX

Tel: 020 8877 0230

Contact: Either Simon Fenn or Bruce Stewart

Key benefits: Enabler email marketing service is quick to set up, easy-to-use and, because it is web-based, has no impact on brokers' or insurers' existing IT arrangements. It allows brokers and insurers to create professional looking email communications and to send these as personal emails to groups of their customers - either to generate business or to help manage existing business relationships. Perfect solution for eShots, eBulletins, eNotices, even eSurveys. It also allows for insurers or broker groups to make email collateral available for their brokers to brand, personalise and use. A suite of online reports is continuously accessible to the organisations and users to see who has opened the emails sent out and what links within the email were clicked on. Report insights include 'dashboard overview', 'the best day to mail your campaigns' and 'most responsive times of day'. There is even an automated communication history to help manage and track compliance.

Comments: Chris Booth of Hine Insurance Brokers said: "Email is fast becoming the greatest tool we use for communicating with our clients and prospects and, as such, Enabler appears to be the product we have been looking for for a while now.

There seems to be great scope avail able to contact our clients with product updates or industry awareness magazines and to cross sell to them. The ability to contact prospects via this method with full traceable reporting facilities to identify how your email has been handled by your audience should enable future campaigns to be slicker and more effective. Add to this the savings in postage costs and employee time and there are real tangible benefits.

Enabler is a product we are seriously contemplating taking on board. HTML language and reliance on Enablerto do artwork could be cost prohibitive, though Pancentric seems willing to be flexible."

Overall rating: Very Good.