Declaring that the company has learned its lesson from the economic crisis, The Hartford's chief executive officer outlined a new strategy for growth while putting enterprise risk management front and center.

“We learned our lesson from the last two years,” Liam E. McGee, the company's chairman, president and CEO, declared during a recent investor meeting in New York broadcast live on the Web.

Mr. McGee laid out a corporate structure that will concentrate its sales efforts in three distinct areas and pay close attention to enterprise risk management. The ERM initiative will feature a multitiered management and committee structure charged with examining and evaluating the company's exposures.

Mr. McGee said the enterprise risk management approach will consist of:

o An independent chief risk officer reporting to the CEO.

o A risk committee of the board of directors.

o An executive risk committee chaired by the CEO.

The Connecticut-based insurer just completed repaying $3.4 billion it had borrowed from the U.S. Treasury under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, after its life insurance operations suffered severe investment losses and the need to deliver on guaranteed returns for variable annuities.

Mr. McGee said that after “a comprehensive review” of the company's operations and a capital boost of close to $3 billion, the company now “has a balance sheet that can sustain any reasonable stress scenario, including severe market and credit stresses.”

Under stress scenarios the company outlined, a worst-case depletion of capital in the 2010-2011 time frame would leave the company with $1.9 billion in capital, The Hartford said.

Mr. McGee said the company will re-focus around its strong brand and concentrate its efforts in three groups, which the company outlined as:

o Commercial Markets: Providing risk protection and benefits businesses; offering small commercial, middle-market, specialty property and casualty, and group benefits, with a growth focus on small and midsize businesses.

This segment will be led by Juan Andrade, who will serve as president of commercial markets.

o Wealth Management: This segment will provide solutions for the retirement savings, income and estate planning needs of consumers and small-business owners.

With the over-65 population expected to increase in years to come, the company said there are significant opportunities in this area for growth.

This segment will he headed by John Walters, who will serve as president of Wealth Management.

o Consumer Markets: The Hartford plans to grow its AARP auto and homeowners insurance program through independent agents and direct distribution, with an initial focus on customers 40-and-over through independent agents.

The company plans to expand its affinity market relationships, and is conducting a search for an executive to head this division.

On the affinity markets front, Mr. McGee said the company is not looking for relationships through a “Sears or Ford,” but rather ties with organizations where members have an emotional connection. He would not elaborate further during a question-and-answer period about what specific organizations are being discussed.

Technology improvements will also be a vital focus of the organization, according to Mr. McGee, noting that the carrier's IT structure is often not integrated and suffers from high costs to support legacy systems.

In a separate interview, Mr. McGee said the company has opportunities to update and streamline its technology, adding that “one of the motivating factors will be to make it easier to do business with us.”

The company has done a good job of patchwork with its IT systems, “but we want to be a more contemporary company around technology,” he explained.

When asked how this new alignment would affect producers, Mr. McGee said a clear message coming out of the reorganization is that “our relationship with independent agents has always been one of the most important things at The Hartford. It is more important today and tomorrow than it was yesterday.”

He said agents should be heartened by the realignment, because while they will be doing business with the same company representatives they have in the past, they will see greater coordination in accessing products to fill their client's needs.

“I think this is very much influenced by our desire to do a better job and make it easier for our agents to do business with us,” he said.

Currently, there are two distinct sales forces that agents deal with, noted Mr. McGee. The reorganization is aimed at making property and casualty and benefits products more accessible to agents. He was emphatic that agents will not see new requirements that they sell more products to their customers.

“We have to earn the right to have the agent sell our products,” said Mr. McGee. “Our goal is to make it simpler for an agent, if he or she chooses [to sell those products].”