I had the same problem but managed to fix it.

I think the problem is that the repository in the BRMS insurance example was built with an old version of the MVEL library (mvel14-1.2pre5.jar) which means that some the MVEL objects defined in the example repository (in file repository_export.xml) have an incorrect serialVersionUID values when they are accessed by the BRMS web-app, which uses a (newer?) version of MVEL mvel14-1.2rc1.jar.

Here's how I got the example working:

1. I assume you've  already loaded the example repository from repository_export.xml as described in Fernando's instructions for the BRMS example in the drools 4.0GA manual (section 9, which incidentally doesn't have a table of contents entry, so you have to scroll down to near the end of the manual).  Click the Packages option on the left-hand side of the BRMS page.  Select the org.acme.insurance package in the Explore tab. Click on "build, validate and deploy" for this package. Then click the "Build Package" button. This will build a new version of the example, but using the new MVEL library. If the build worked, another button will appear below the "Build Package" button called "create Snapshot for Deployment". Created a new snapshot and call it what you like.

2. Click the Deployment option on the left-hand-side of the BRMS window.  Click on the Snapshot tab and then select the org.acme.insurance package. The new snapshot you created should be listed. Click the Open button beside it and copy the displayed Package URI into the brmsdeployedrules.properties file to replace the existing key called url – this is identical to the instructions in the manual. Save the file.

3. In the example eclipse project, remove the mvel14-1.2pre5.jar from the project's java build path libraries. Add in the following jars from the drools 4.0 GA binary distribution:

mvel14-1.2rc1.jar
drools-core-4.0.0.jar
drools-compiler-4.0.0.jar

Now run MainClass in the examples eclipse project. Hopefully, you will see the expected output.

Note that the exported binary version of the insurance example found in resources/org.acme.insurance.pkg suffers from the same issue. To get that working as well you will need to create a new version of the file by selecting "download binary package" in step 1, after clicking "Build Package".

Shahad