NU Online News Service, May 13, 3:50 p.m. EST
What does one learn after covering insurance news for 15 years, as I have done until my retirement today?
The power of the industry, for one thing. Imagine, just one insurer (AIG) had the heft to be among those institutions judged capable of crashing the U.S. financial system.
One also learned that lawmakers in Congress can be amazingly obtuse about what is wrong and what is right about the industry.
It is also instructive to realize what a fractious industry insurance is, with difficulties getting across a unified message and agreeing on how and what government should do about matters that affect the business.
I came to writing about insurance from a background of reporting for various general news outlets in New York and New Jersey, about things like crime, corruption, death, destruction and politics.
With insurance, I had to write about topics like first-dollar coverage and catastrophe bonds. I had to learn that a captive was not a slave, and non-admitted did not mean unconfessed.
But I was also frequently writing about crime, corruption, death, destruction and politics.
And I was glad to do it at National Underwriter–which, unlike some trade publications that are unabashed, unquestioning handmaidens of their industry, is not afraid to take an independent stance.
Besides a policy of independence, NU is led by Editor In Chief Sam Friedman, who also had a policy of fairness. Sam may be critical at times, but he has a wealth of knowledge about the industry and its players and respect as well.
I will miss Sam and the other good players here at NU, as well as some of the helpful and upright industry folks I have met over the years.
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