Even if they went paperless (yeah, yeah, we know), insurance carriers would still be responsible for producing prospectuses for many of their products as required by the Securities and Exchange Commission and various departments of insurance throughout the country. AXA Financial, parent of the Equitable Life Assurance Co., found that the typesetting requirements to produce such copies could be handled just as easily in house, particularly if the company acquired the same printing software used by its outside vendor.

AXA already did much of its printing in-house, but the more complicated world of financial printing called for more precision. [Forms and flyers] are different than legal documents. Theyre written in different terms, said Richard Rogers, manager of the e-publishing division for AXA. It is easy to do marketing material in Word or Quark, but to do a prospectus requires a high-end system.

AXA had used outside vendors for years, but with its number of life insurance and annuity products growing, Rogers said, We reached a certain level where it just made sense to bring it back in house. We felt it would be less expensive and we would have better control over the quality. We also felt we would have better control of the content and how we could re-use it for other products.