The purpose of these pages is to provide space for experts in their fields to provide information, discussion, and tips that will be helpful to life company personnel. In some of the discussions, like that of initial public offerings by Mark Pape, material is added that is not covered at all in the Field Notes. Mark gives you an inside look at the public offering process, from the "window" to the road show and pricing. In others, such as E Business Applications by Bill Fleming, significantly more detail is added on items mentioned in the Field Notes, such as scanning in the field and the development of an electronic policyholder file systems. That section includes material that should be helpful to programmers and systems people building related systems. I believe the most unusual approach is Systems Evolution by Mike Dragoo. This traces a number of systems for handling specific work over a period of more than 25 years, during much of which the technology of today was not available. The solutions offered should be interesting even to those that have already moved to more modern solutions, but of particular value to those that are still using earlier approaches .

Each of the experts, and I, will be glad to try to be helpful in answering questions and providing missing detail by email. Please use the Guest Book to pose any questions or comments, or email me.