Reflections on the Fate of AIG
National News • October 9, 2008
The AIG has been a settled part of the insurance scene for as long as I have been watching it. It was huge, centralized and driven by a singular and dominant personality. It nearly always evoked ...
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Subject: Former AIG Employees
Posted On: October 9, 2008, 1:48 pm CDT
Posted By: temblor
Comment:
I worked for two of their companies, in the Manhattan branche of Commerce and Industry when it was a market for superior property accounts, and in the home office of American Home, when it wrote what actually was substandard property. I supervised their branches in the NE. Actually my job wasn't to review and approve the branch underwriting, turns out there wan't any. They wrote anything and everything at whatever price it took to get it. My job was to make sure that the reinsurance was set up so American Home took the absolute minimum risk allowed by the treaties, and the max. amount ceded to the treaties. Everyone was terrified of having a loss and Hank finding out that it had been possible to cede more to the reinsurers.
No one in the branches had a clue how to issue a policy. I felt a tightly put togethe3r policy was important so wrote long memos to the branches on each policy, telling them what endorsements or forms to add or delete to make a sound contract.
Although AIG was a strong supporter of the College of Insurance, and I taught lunch and learn there, my manager was extremely unhappy when he found that I had to take an hour and 20 minutes for lunch, even though I always worked far more than 40 hours a week.
We in middle underwriting management always wondered how the companies made profits year in and year out, even when the industry would be bleeding red ink. The only thing we could figure was they were living off the reinsurance commissions. Little did we know Hank had a deal with Gen Re to make it look as if their liabilities had been transferred so he didn't have to show them. Well, the regulators finally, after many years, got him and the Gen Re executives, for that little (illegal) ploy.
Fear permeated the entire 70 Pine Street operation, and it was a very unpleasant place to work.
I found that fear permeated both companies. Everyone was terrified of Hank getting mad at them. No one knew how to underwrite, C & I's HPR homeoffice product manager knew nothing about property insurance, yet he had to approve every quote.
Subject: Former AIG Employees
No one in the branches had a clue how to issue a policy. I felt a tightly put togethe3r policy was important so wrote long memos to the branches on each policy, telling them what endorsements or forms to add or delete to make a sound contract.
Although AIG was a strong supporter of the College of Insurance, and I taught lunch and learn there, my manager was extremely unhappy when he found that I had to take an hour and 20 minutes for lunch, even though I always worked far more than 40 hours a week.
We in middle underwriting management always wondered how the companies made profits year in and year out, even when the industry would be bleeding red ink. The only thing we could figure was they were living off the reinsurance commissions. Little did we know Hank had a deal with Gen Re to make it look as if their liabilities had been transferred so he didn't have to show them. Well, the regulators finally, after many years, got him and the Gen Re executives, for that little (illegal) ploy.
Fear permeated the entire 70 Pine Street operation, and it was a very unpleasant place to work.
I found that fear permeated both companies. Everyone was terrified of Hank getting mad at them. No one knew how to underwrite, C & I's HPR homeoffice product manager knew nothing about property insurance, yet he had to approve every quote.