Milestones…

Readers of the Insurance Advocate are surely saddened by the passing of Jay Fishman, one of the industry’s legendary (a word that is way overused and misapplied, though not in this case) leaders. He epitomized high standards and commitment to the business and its good central purposes in serving the public. RIP. … On a far lower scale of importance, we note that Business Insurance has ceased publication after 50 years. It was a formidable medium for the benefits, risk management and large brokerage side of the business for its many years and performed a great service. The Insurance Advocate is a different genus, being far older (127 years) and by design local, servicing the industry’s P/C community from the store front agents of New York—for many of whom English is a second language—to the many CEOs who follow us loyally so they can keep up with the trends, their independent and captive agency distribution systems, and the legal developments that affect them. When we first purchased the Advocate in August 1986—30 years ago this past month—the field was ripe with magazines (years before the Internet came into common use), many of which are still here. The prospect today is for a media cluster to replace a pure printed document and to endeavor to reach readers on multiple levels, principally as consumers of useful info and as willing users of advertisers’ services. The formula still works for us and seems to have legs well into the future. I trust that’s good news. … There are some professionals you will be reading about over the next few months who are making news with innovation—Keith Minella, Jon Sabes, Tal Piccione, and here’s a name from the past, Mark Ross. There are more, but each of them has given us some advanced insight into projects that they have realized (not announced yet) that bear following. Steve Menzies is another who continues to progress in the marketplace with creative approaches to his businesses and to the business of insurance itself. There are more…watch these pages. … The elections provide an irresistible topic, so we will resist it. Not sure of the political persuasion of our readers, although many insurers and professionals in the field lean conservative in business just by the nature of the art, so it might follow that their penchant is toward the more conservative planks of either party. Because so many of the values on both sides support the interests of the insurance business, which uniquely reflects societal trends, social responsibility, the leanings of the courts, and the boundaries of acceptable behavior, the industry should be happy with the candidate whose integrity is most reliable for the execution of the platform points that enhance business practice and fairness. How’s that for a non-opinion? Can’t afford to lose 50% of our readers. … The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) will host its 10th annual Northeast Benefit Dinner at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at the Waldorf. The dinner is expected to gather more than 1,000. All proceeds from the dinner will fund the Northeast Division’s community grants program, which provides grants to regional charities that champion causes pertaining to education, at-risk children, the environment, and disaster preparedness. Tables and tickets for the dinner are currently available for purchase by contacting the IICF Benefit Office at (212) 763-8597 or IICF@cmevents.net. IICF will honor Chubb for philanthropic leadership with the 2016 IICF “Double I” Award for influence in the industry and impact in the community. The award will be accepted by John Keogh, Executive Vice Chairman & Chief Operating Officer, Chubb Group. Featured speakers at the event will include Tom Coughlin, two-time Super Bowl Winning NFL Head Coach & Senior Advisor, NFL, and President of The Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation; and Daniel J. “Rusty” Staub, founder of The Rusty Staub Foundation, six-time Major League Baseball All Star, Hall of Fame member of the New York Mets, Montreal Expos, Houston Astros, and member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Additional special guests will be announced in the months leading up to the dinner, and each will be accepting grants on behalf of charities they support.

Along with John Lupica, Paul Krump, executive vice president, Chubb Group, and president, North America Commercial & Personal Insurance, will serve as co-chair for the event. Last year, the dinner raised $1.28 million to fund 15 grants to non-profits in the New York tri-state area. SA