Their work together will commence on January 24, when Mr. Cogert will present "Insurance Investment: A Road Map for Turbulent Times" at Meridian's Investment Consulting Conference in London.

Mr. Cogert noted, "The latest accounting and regulatory threats often drive insurer investment decisions. What we will be discussing is how the difference in US and UK accounting and regulatory standards often drive different investment strategies." During the presentation Mr. Cogert will outline key challenges facing an insurer's investment process and how these challenges can be met while focusing on the insurance company's key performance metrics of success.

"SAA, like Meridian, specializes in working for the insurance industry," observed David Osborne. "Being based in the US, SAA brings considerable expertise in US financial, regulatory and accounting issues as they affect UK investment strategy, and also considerable knowledge of US investment managers with insurance expertise."

Osborne noted that Strategic Asset Alliance (www.saai.com) was recently honored as the leading insurance investment consulting firm by the 2006 Survey of Insurance Companies' Investment Management Practices, an independent survey conducted by Eager, Davis & Holmes. "We believe an important advantage of our association with SAA will be our access to SAA's extensive insight into working with US investment managers," he said.

Alton Cogert, noted, "We are excited by our association with Meridian and the benefit it will bring to clients of both companies. Meridian has unique expertise in the investment requirements of insurers in the UK, a market that has always been linked with the US market."

Based in London, Meridian Investment Consultancy (www.mips.co.uk) has been providing investment consultancy to insurance companies, captives and Lloyd's syndicates for over ten years. Meridian works as a bridge between their clients and their clients' investment managers to aid them in understanding one another, as well as helping their clients to understand what sort of investments are suitable for their insurance business. Among clients Meridian has worked with are Aegis, Beazley Insurance International, Catlin, Inc., Houston Casualty Company, Navigators Insurance Company, Liberty Mutual Europe and several other UK-based companies that are US-owned insurers.

Strategic Asset Alliance, with offices across the US, is an insurance investment consulting company comprised of former chief investment officers of insurance companies. Over the past twelve years SAA has worked with insurance clients to help them improve their investment and financial results.

Both Meridian and SAA provide services which encompass the entire investment process and include: best practices reviews of investment policy; strategic asset allocation analysis; establishment of unique and relevant benchmarks for asset management; peer group analysis; search, evaluation, selection and monitoring of asset managers; as well as portfolio performance measurement.