Every So Often…..

Every so often, we get it right. Among the many e-mails received here following my piece in this space on June 29th, there were several that expressed pleasure at our critique of Sen. Warren’s presumptuous advice to Gov. Cuomo on his selection of the next DFS chief. She’d like it if the Governor were to appoint the Marquis de Sade to teach love to bankers here. Naïve interlopers have no place in New York processes, especially as our economy includes the world’s leading economic institutions that pay taxes, employ hundreds of thousands and seek only a fair regulatory environment in return. The Governor will get that, no doubt.

Here are two samples from our “mail bag”:

RE: Correctness

Dear Steve: You are to be applauded for not just recognizing the dangerous views of socialist Sen. Elizabeth Warren but for articulating so in the Insurance Advocate of June 29th. Few are brave enough in this atmosphere of political correctness to point out political INCORRECTNESS! Also, in that same issue, Dr. Orient gives a refreshing sense of reality in measured and spot on commentary. Dr. Ben Carson is a tremendous asset to the American dialogue on what is wrong but also how to improve in specifics. Excellent issue!

Anthony T. Di Simone SPPA,PA,CMI, Senior General Adjuster

Dear Steve: I just read your FOREWORD article in the Insurance Advocate entitled “Boundaries”. Your comments regarding U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren were definitely on point. As they say in gymnastics (and the construction industry), “you nailed it!” Well done, Steve.

Ellen Melchionni, CAE President New York Insurance Association, Inc.

Thanks to those who wrote. Historians of the business (are there any others out there?) will not fail to note the events of these years in the brokerage business.

Insurance Advocate® has named it the “Age of Improbable Convergences.”

Reinsurance brokers, insurance brokers, companies, franchisors and all manner of entities are consolidating and continue to look in new places.

It is a busy time for professional M&A execs like Steve Nigro, head of TAG Financial. From his office chair in the Empire State Building he surveys as many as twenty “hot” transactions a week of which several are his. Steve told us “Valuations in the market place are at an all-time high and buyers are tending to broaden their scope of interest as to the types of entities they wish to buy”. He is dead on accurate, judging by our press release waterfall.

For a publisher in the field, that might mean fewer readers, but it also signals richer ones. No, our rates are not going up. But if we follow the crossover trend in insurance (carriers looking at agents, reinsurers looking at platform companies, et cetera) we might well merge the Insurance Advocate with Popular Mechanics and call it a retooling. Or maybe we could join forces with Vanity Fair – after all, Peter Bickford does cover the regulatory scene rather colorfully. Or maybe we could blend together with Playboy and ask Jerry Trupin to expand our concept of coverage.

Yes, I do need a vacation.

And you deserve one, too. Enjoy it, especially you, our great writers, contributors and staff led by Gina Balog.