“Opinion”

This issue of Insurance Advocate leads with a cover story by Peter Bickford, one of our prized columnists and a respected longtime industry observer. Peter expresses a well-reasoned opinion that we hear over and over again; that is, that the New York Liquidation Bureau might best be itself liquidated. Peter hastens to point out that this is no reflection on the people or on the current administration but upon the way the Liquidation Bureau is structured, or, better, unstructured. Peter’s arguments are strong and reflect some underlying frustration. We give him these pages in the fond hope that we will draw a reply in the form of action from those currently responsible. Peter’s article is slugged: “Opinion”. It is an opinion and, in presenting it, we understand that this is one, no matter how widely held. We have received a number of different missives on the matter of ELNY, the recent court decision, and the overall plight of annuitants, so I felt that, together with Peter’s invective, it would be a further expansion on this theme to include attorney Edward Stone’s response to the Court decision, following his contempt citation and the failure of his suit on behalf of annuitants. Taken as a whole, this is not a beautiful picture for any of the parties. While Peter Bickford and Ed Stone each lay this at the doorstep of Superintendent Lawsky, it is not placed there as a personal attack on the Superintendent, particularly in these very pages where we have had so many good things to say about his performance, notably during Super Storm Sandy. The matter is inevitably placed in his path as the office holder. Stone refers to other Superintendents who have had a piece of this problem during their tenures. Unfortunately, it appears that the matter has been kicked down the road to this latest point. We believe that redress of some sort is due and that an appropriate response might come with the restructuring of that department so that accountability is ensured appropriately. We thank Peter and Ed for stating their opinions openly and to the others who communicated – even those who ask for anonymity, for reaching out to us to urge that we put this on the front burner. We await competing views and promise to publish them with equal emphasis… Speaking of emphasis, the emphasis of the new Women in Insurance Conference scheduled for June appears to be something of a human resources event, regarding the place of woman in the spectrum of employment and corporate opportunity. Personally, I am not one for segregating and dividing parts of anything unnecessarily but if there is a cause to be made I am sure that the people at this conference will make it cogently. Their featured speaker is particularly interesting and profound on the topic of women and their progress in the corporate world… One final note, as the February 8th snow fell I received an e-mail from Coletta Kemper of the CAIB in Chicago, who was researching the career of Mr. Melvin Holmes. I reached back to the November 1975 Insurance Advocate when Holmes was the man of the year of the Insurance Federation of New York and spent a pleasant hour with the issues from the latter part of that year. Holmes, it turns out, who was Vice Chairman of Frank B. Hall was feted at the Insurance Federation of New York, Inc.’s Annual Luncheon which drew 1,000 professionals to the Americana Hotel. Sadly, so many of the issues in those volumes are still alive, issues like solvency and rate increases, workers’ comp problems and, there it is, the role of the Superintendent – in this case Tom Harnett. I find myself drawn back to the Advocate’s pages again and again even if only to find pictures of friends, some here some gone, or to be reminded how little things really do change.