As We Move Toward the Year’s End…

More than 400 gathered at New York’s Cipriani’s on Wall Street as the Insurance Federation of New York presented its Free Enterprise award to Joseph Plumeri, Chairman of Willis. Plumeri joins an illustrious line of industry leaders in receiving the award, since IFNY’s inception nearly 100 years ago. The full story appears in this issue. Plumeri is quite a personality, one whose success has not torn him from the core values of his family’s roots. He is an exceptional speaker, a mover and shaker and a great model of success as a risk taker and achiever in every good sense of the word. The luncheon was memorable on a number of counts, including the presence of Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky who delivered an overview of the department’s progress in its new DFS uniform. Rob Easton, who just returned to the DFS in a top role, was present as well. All in all, it was—once again—the annual luncheon not to miss…In this issue we recount (on page 6 ) the IIABNY and CIBGNY continuing battle to overturn Reg. 194. This is a courageous and costly fight in which we hope the agents’ groups will prevail. IIABNY is unrelenting and is, together with CIBGNY, doing everything to insulate agents and brokers from what it believes is an unreasonable disclosure process …In this issue we cover the DFS modernization in a feature written by our Albany team. We will have another assessment of the same matter in an upcoming issue, written by our respected observer, Peter Bickford…We had the pleasure of cutting out a New York Times article giving a boost to one of our regular contributors, Ms. Sari Rafi Gabay. Her law firm, like her career, is on the rise and we wish her all the best…as does the Times writer implicitly.