AA&B readers have spoken! More than 550 readers voted in our online poll and your favorite decade of past stories is the rad '80s.

To coincide with our 80th anniversary, AA&B launched an 80^th anniversary Web site accessible from agentandbroker.com that looked back at 80 years of agent and broker success. We posted stories from AA&B's past 80 years, along with fun facts and trend stories examining how things have changed–or stayed the same–over the years.

Readers were able to view AA&B's old stories by decade, and nearly 30 percent of poll respondents chose the 1980s as their favorite decade.

What made the '80s so interesting to agents and brokers?

In the midst of a liability insurance availability crisis in the mid-1980s, buyers seeking coverage started turning to alternative risk arrangements such as offshore and domestic captives. Meanwhile, the escalating cost of healthcare began to take its toll on the pricing and availability of healthcare insurance. Plaintiffs' lawsuits started to boom and tort reform legislation was a big issue. Insurance also began to grow into the computer age. The decade also was marked by Reagonomics, which aimed for a reduction in government spending and regulation.

Today, as agents and brokers spend hours each day on the computer, connecting to customers worldwide, it may be hard to imagine a workplace 25 years ago. A June 1985 AA&B article, “Streamlining agency functions with a computer,” showed how an agency jumped into automation by purchasing Digital Equipment Corp. minicomputers. “Our system can accommodate more that 20 terminals. At present we have 11 CRTs, one for every active person on staff,” Martin Glenn wrote.

We also posted our annual reader survey from 1985. Former AA&B editor in chief George Williams, then associate editor, wrote, “The rapid pace of agency automation continued unabated in 1984. More than half of this year's respondents, 52 percent, said they now have some kind of in-house computer system, up from 40 percent last year.” It certainly is a far cry from today.

The decade also was marked by national pride when Mary Lou Retton scored a perfect 10 on the vault in the all-around in the 1984 Olympics, earning her a gold medal over the Soviet powerhouses. Leroy Larson Cooter wrote how insuring gymnastics clubs became a specialty at his agency in LaMesa, Calif.

Special Reports /

Get the 411: The &#039;80s are, like, totally wicked

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Get the 411: The '80s are, like, totally wicked