Yea now can they apologize to all the workers that they laid off because they were trying to sell bits and piece of their company to keep their heads above water. Or maybe they can apologize to the stockholder that saw their shares go from $50 to $2 in one day. No one talks about the some 400+ employees they let go from just the insurance part and just in California. I think this ad campaign is a slap in the face.
This ad is going to make me sick. They can thank me by reimbursing me for the hit my portfolio took because of their gross negligence in running their company and selling worthless credit default swaps which needed to be backed by the government. They can thank me by paying me a decent interest rate on my savings forced by the government artificially holding down rates to save the financial sector due to their ineptitude. They can thank me by running themselves into the ground by running a crappy P&C operation which will ultimately lead them to yet another bankruptcy this one not to be bailed out.
IMHO AIG’s poliycholder retention throughout the crisis showed that their policyholders understood the business economics. Gross errors were primarily the responsibility of just one financial products division, which is no longer a part of AIG. I expect the ad campaign will reinforce what most of us already know (that the temporary bailout ultimately proved to be effective).
Speaking of policy holder retention, I guess a good retention rate is all in the eye of the beholder. They lost a lot of accounts and continue to do so, some by their choice and some decided by the policy holder. Either way their “crown jewel” continues to shrink and one has to wonder if they are retaining the best accounts or worst. Time will tell.
Great. You’re welcome. Glad we were able to keep the global economy afloat after your poor risk decisions (selling . So, how to prevent need for future gov’t bailouts, now that we have “2B2F” doctrine? Prescious little financial reform regulation have resulted since the bail-outs. Only a matter of time, I’m afraid.
The ignorance of the comments here are unbelievable, I started with AIG right after they announced their troubles and I understood it was the Financial Products unit and not the P&C side that created the issues.
Account retention has been good and the elimination of poor accounts has been easy with so many competitiors willing to pick up poor risks for even cheaper prices.
It sounds like sour grapes with some people here and if you had any idea the amount of hard work and dedication it took from the frontline employees and not Booby B. the glory hound to keep this operation afloat you might have some more respect for what the employees managed to do despite all of the bad press and entire marketplace circling around like vultures.
If you can not compete against knowledgable and competetent underwriters perhaps you may want to look at the your own level of inferior staff. Having spent over 25 years in this business, i can honestly say the level of laziness on both the Broker and underwriting side will lead to other companies heading down the path of failure. At least AIG still kept the good ones to help them steer the company out of the mess.
FInally, unless you have all the facts, casting mud does nothing more than make you look dirty and silly.
“Account retention has been good and the elimination of poor accounts has been easy with so many competitors willing to pick up poor risks for even cheaper prices.”
Elimination of poor accounts? How did that happen? How did AIG write poor accounts in the first place? Bad underwriting? Hmmm? Why did AIG have to jack up old reserves by over $10 billion in 2009 and 2010 while other companies were reducing old reserves? Your revisionist history is interesting.
Accounts can always start out profitable then deteriorate for a number of reasons, top at the list is the outrageous increase in Legal fees… AIG increased reserves mostly on old asbestos related claims and not once did they take down reserves to bolster underwriting losses like most of the industry did.
Strengthening of resreves is a common practice in the industry due to changes in settlemets and claim sbeing either closed out or judgements being determined. So again, nothing strange there.
“Accounts can always start out profitable then deteriorate for a number of reasons, top at the list is the outrageous increase in Legal fees…”
Who taught you this stuff? Accounts properly underwritten and properly priced with a little dose of luck make money. Accounts with loose terms and conditions and which are under-priced lose tons of money for the insurance company.
“Strengthening of resreves is a common practice in the industry due to changes in settlemets and claim sbeing either closed out or judgements being determined.”
Who taught you this? Strengthening of reserves is a common practice for companies which initially under-reserve losses. 80-90% of the industry has been LOWERING old reserves as they were too conservative. AIG set records in 2009 and 2010 in INCREASING reserves due ti terrible reserving practices in an effort to make results in prior year look better than they were. Why were all these insurance companies decreasing reserves in 2009 and 2010 while AIG was setting records in the opposite direction? Blaming industry practices on problems unique to AIG is plain nuts. Too much AIG Koolaid.
Dave, there have been plenty of scoundrels in the P&C division of AIG. Remember the Marsh scandals on bid rigging? They also got into trouble on reserving of WC claims as well. We can’t lay all the blame on the Financial services unit which ultimately led to their demise. RPB sounds like a good, loyal employee who apparently got a nice bonus.
Nope, just someone that likes to see the truth come out and as respects the bid rigging, that was supposedly created by Marsh and all charges were dismissed. Besides I had started on Brokerage side fo rmany years and I do believe that any agent can never say they did not give an edge to a market on a piece of business because they were getting higher comission.
So the scoundrel comment can be said of brokers and agents and really any industry and especially the US Government.
How can the company thrive and show value to stockholders when it has sold off some of its valuable divisions?
How can the company claim to be on the rebound when so many of its employees left for competitors? A large number of the employees that left were those that helped various AIG divisions design products that distinguished themselves from the competition.
AIG is more or less a traditional insurance company that must rely on proper underwriting to make a profit since investment returns are poor. Many of its most talented personnel ran for the exit after the financial trouble, and some of its most prized assets (HSB, Transatlantic Re, etc) were sold for garage sale prices.
It is no wonder that the market does not like the stock. When one looks at the reverse 1:20 stock split in 2009, the stock has gone from $1.00 in 2009 to $1.80 in 2013. That is not a good return on your investment if you were an investor!
You do not want you are talking about RPB. Stay away from the AIG talking points, and stop drinking the AIG Kool Aid!
It would have been better for this company to have gone under than have the American public been handed the bill for this mismanagement.
How is the company going to grow when it has sold off its most prized assets at garage sale prices and when some of its best employees have left for other positions? AIG was known in the past for its ability to think outside the box, but it is know more or less now a traditional insurance company.
When one looks at the reverse 1:20 stock split in 2009, the stock has gone from $1.00 in 2009 to $1.80 in 2013. This is not a good return on investment by any means, but this is logical given the fact that AIG has sold off some its most prized assets and lost some of its most valuable talent.
The company should have been allowed to go under. There was ample capacity to take on the risks on AIG’s book. These risks would have been reunderwritten to reflect the commensurate premium for the exposures and hazards of this book of business.
You do not know what you are talking about RPB. Stop drinking the AIG Kool Aid!
Spoken like an outsider looking in Insurance 102, perhaps you should have taken insurance 101 and realize assets sold were non core insurance assets or non P&C driven.
Not drinking anybodies kool aid, I speak from experience and knowledge on the industry. No bonus money, no huge raises and the talent that left? Who would that be, the Kelly boys at Ironshore, they do not seem to be soing so well, the folks at CV Starr, if they can not undercut price by 20% they can’t write the business, who else of the “talent” pool have left that has had such great success since they left????
Kool Aid drinking, nope, only the facts pure and simple.
Yes, I remember ads for AIG Direct and saving customers $500 on their Auto. Then, it went to 21st Century with basically the same pitch. By the way, I wonder how GEICO, Progressive, Allstate and 21st Century can all save a customer about the same amount against their rivals. Sounds a bit like false advertising, doesn’t it? Allstate is scamming with Esurance who they bought and supposedly quote several carriers. I have a feeling they channel most business to Allstate, but I can’t prove it. I am sure the Allstate agents love that approach and get lots of referrals.
January 4, 2013 at 10:02 am
Dave says:
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I’ve been with State Farm for a long while. I don’t know if they are the cheapest, but so far they’ve been very good at handling the few claims I’ve handed them, and that’s what it’s all about. Many years ago I had a bad experience with GEICO and will never sign on with them because of it. And as far as Progressive, the CEO has strong political leanings contrary to mine so he will never see a dime of my insurance dollar. I don’t really have any strong feelings about the others.
Dave, Does State Farm permit their agents to place business with Progressive if they want to? As an Independent, we can do business with whoever we want if we get an appointment. I, too don’t have a lot of regard for Progressive due to their political leanings and their methods of doing business. We have them because we can send troubled business to them and they will write it for a price. Also, Flobot is better looking than Flo now.
Agent, I don’t believe so. State Farm I’m pretty sure has all captive agents. I’ve struggled with the best way to do this, but State Farm has treated me very well. And many years ago as a reinsurer I did some business with them and they treated me very professionally. If I ever left State Farm I would probably move to an independent agency.
Well, one thing the big captives have is a big advantage in advertising. Independent agency companies don’t do much and the only one we have that advertises is Travelers. It is kind of strange since they are not very competitive currently in our market, but they do have a national brand. Sooner or later, they will wake up and wonder where their business went and will get back in the game, but right now, they have taken rate more than their competitors and the market hasn’t caught up with them.
Phoenix, there is “no need” to jump on Dave. I don’t have any big issues with State Farm. I do think they got a little off base by going into too much financial services business rather than taking care of their P&C, but that is just my opinion.
Yea now can they apologize to all the workers that they laid off because they were trying to sell bits and piece of their company to keep their heads above water. Or maybe they can apologize to the stockholder that saw their shares go from $50 to $2 in one day. No one talks about the some 400+ employees they let go from just the insurance part and just in California. I think this ad campaign is a slap in the face.
This ad is going to make me sick. They can thank me by reimbursing me for the hit my portfolio took because of their gross negligence in running their company and selling worthless credit default swaps which needed to be backed by the government. They can thank me by paying me a decent interest rate on my savings forced by the government artificially holding down rates to save the financial sector due to their ineptitude. They can thank me by running themselves into the ground by running a crappy P&C operation which will ultimately lead them to yet another bankruptcy this one not to be bailed out.
No amount of PR will ever change my opinion of them. Their new logo sucks as well.
IMHO AIG’s poliycholder retention throughout the crisis showed that their policyholders understood the business economics. Gross errors were primarily the responsibility of just one financial products division, which is no longer a part of AIG. I expect the ad campaign will reinforce what most of us already know (that the temporary bailout ultimately proved to be effective).
Speaking of policy holder retention, I guess a good retention rate is all in the eye of the beholder. They lost a lot of accounts and continue to do so, some by their choice and some decided by the policy holder. Either way their “crown jewel” continues to shrink and one has to wonder if they are retaining the best accounts or worst. Time will tell.
Great. You’re welcome. Glad we were able to keep the global economy afloat after your poor risk decisions (selling . So, how to prevent need for future gov’t bailouts, now that we have “2B2F” doctrine? Prescious little financial reform regulation have resulted since the bail-outs. Only a matter of time, I’m afraid.
…And the production costs for the Ads will be underwritten by Goldman-Sachs
I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!
So AIG is going to run an ad showing how the bailout helped them pay property claims?
The ignorance of the comments here are unbelievable, I started with AIG right after they announced their troubles and I understood it was the Financial Products unit and not the P&C side that created the issues.
Account retention has been good and the elimination of poor accounts has been easy with so many competitiors willing to pick up poor risks for even cheaper prices.
It sounds like sour grapes with some people here and if you had any idea the amount of hard work and dedication it took from the frontline employees and not Booby B. the glory hound to keep this operation afloat you might have some more respect for what the employees managed to do despite all of the bad press and entire marketplace circling around like vultures.
If you can not compete against knowledgable and competetent underwriters perhaps you may want to look at the your own level of inferior staff. Having spent over 25 years in this business, i can honestly say the level of laziness on both the Broker and underwriting side will lead to other companies heading down the path of failure. At least AIG still kept the good ones to help them steer the company out of the mess.
FInally, unless you have all the facts, casting mud does nothing more than make you look dirty and silly.
“Account retention has been good and the elimination of poor accounts has been easy with so many competitors willing to pick up poor risks for even cheaper prices.”
Elimination of poor accounts? How did that happen? How did AIG write poor accounts in the first place? Bad underwriting? Hmmm? Why did AIG have to jack up old reserves by over $10 billion in 2009 and 2010 while other companies were reducing old reserves? Your revisionist history is interesting.
Accounts can always start out profitable then deteriorate for a number of reasons, top at the list is the outrageous increase in Legal fees… AIG increased reserves mostly on old asbestos related claims and not once did they take down reserves to bolster underwriting losses like most of the industry did.
Strengthening of resreves is a common practice in the industry due to changes in settlemets and claim sbeing either closed out or judgements being determined. So again, nothing strange there.
“Accounts can always start out profitable then deteriorate for a number of reasons, top at the list is the outrageous increase in Legal fees…”
Who taught you this stuff? Accounts properly underwritten and properly priced with a little dose of luck make money. Accounts with loose terms and conditions and which are under-priced lose tons of money for the insurance company.
“Strengthening of resreves is a common practice in the industry due to changes in settlemets and claim sbeing either closed out or judgements being determined.”
Who taught you this? Strengthening of reserves is a common practice for companies which initially under-reserve losses. 80-90% of the industry has been LOWERING old reserves as they were too conservative. AIG set records in 2009 and 2010 in INCREASING reserves due ti terrible reserving practices in an effort to make results in prior year look better than they were. Why were all these insurance companies decreasing reserves in 2009 and 2010 while AIG was setting records in the opposite direction? Blaming industry practices on problems unique to AIG is plain nuts. Too much AIG Koolaid.
Dave, there have been plenty of scoundrels in the P&C division of AIG. Remember the Marsh scandals on bid rigging? They also got into trouble on reserving of WC claims as well. We can’t lay all the blame on the Financial services unit which ultimately led to their demise. RPB sounds like a good, loyal employee who apparently got a nice bonus.
Nope, just someone that likes to see the truth come out and as respects the bid rigging, that was supposedly created by Marsh and all charges were dismissed. Besides I had started on Brokerage side fo rmany years and I do believe that any agent can never say they did not give an edge to a market on a piece of business because they were getting higher comission.
So the scoundrel comment can be said of brokers and agents and really any industry and especially the US Government.
This is a joke.
How can the company thrive and show value to stockholders when it has sold off some of its valuable divisions?
How can the company claim to be on the rebound when so many of its employees left for competitors? A large number of the employees that left were those that helped various AIG divisions design products that distinguished themselves from the competition.
AIG is more or less a traditional insurance company that must rely on proper underwriting to make a profit since investment returns are poor. Many of its most talented personnel ran for the exit after the financial trouble, and some of its most prized assets (HSB, Transatlantic Re, etc) were sold for garage sale prices.
It is no wonder that the market does not like the stock. When one looks at the reverse 1:20 stock split in 2009, the stock has gone from $1.00 in 2009 to $1.80 in 2013. That is not a good return on your investment if you were an investor!
You do not want you are talking about RPB. Stay away from the AIG talking points, and stop drinking the AIG Kool Aid!
It would have been better for this company to have gone under than have the American public been handed the bill for this mismanagement.
How is the company going to grow when it has sold off its most prized assets at garage sale prices and when some of its best employees have left for other positions? AIG was known in the past for its ability to think outside the box, but it is know more or less now a traditional insurance company.
When one looks at the reverse 1:20 stock split in 2009, the stock has gone from $1.00 in 2009 to $1.80 in 2013. This is not a good return on investment by any means, but this is logical given the fact that AIG has sold off some its most prized assets and lost some of its most valuable talent.
The company should have been allowed to go under. There was ample capacity to take on the risks on AIG’s book. These risks would have been reunderwritten to reflect the commensurate premium for the exposures and hazards of this book of business.
You do not know what you are talking about RPB. Stop drinking the AIG Kool Aid!
Spoken like an outsider looking in Insurance 102, perhaps you should have taken insurance 101 and realize assets sold were non core insurance assets or non P&C driven.
Not drinking anybodies kool aid, I speak from experience and knowledge on the industry. No bonus money, no huge raises and the talent that left? Who would that be, the Kelly boys at Ironshore, they do not seem to be soing so well, the folks at CV Starr, if they can not undercut price by 20% they can’t write the business, who else of the “talent” pool have left that has had such great success since they left????
Kool Aid drinking, nope, only the facts pure and simple.
I thought AIG sold their personal auto book.
I could be wrong but I think it went to 21st Century, the goofy online outfit.
Agent, that is correct. I am unaware of any other personal auto book that they may have.
Yes, I remember ads for AIG Direct and saving customers $500 on their Auto. Then, it went to 21st Century with basically the same pitch. By the way, I wonder how GEICO, Progressive, Allstate and 21st Century can all save a customer about the same amount against their rivals. Sounds a bit like false advertising, doesn’t it? Allstate is scamming with Esurance who they bought and supposedly quote several carriers. I have a feeling they channel most business to Allstate, but I can’t prove it. I am sure the Allstate agents love that approach and get lots of referrals.
I’ve been with State Farm for a long while. I don’t know if they are the cheapest, but so far they’ve been very good at handling the few claims I’ve handed them, and that’s what it’s all about. Many years ago I had a bad experience with GEICO and will never sign on with them because of it. And as far as Progressive, the CEO has strong political leanings contrary to mine so he will never see a dime of my insurance dollar. I don’t really have any strong feelings about the others.
Dave, Does State Farm permit their agents to place business with Progressive if they want to? As an Independent, we can do business with whoever we want if we get an appointment. I, too don’t have a lot of regard for Progressive due to their political leanings and their methods of doing business. We have them because we can send troubled business to them and they will write it for a price. Also, Flobot is better looking than Flo now.
Agent, I don’t believe so. State Farm I’m pretty sure has all captive agents. I’ve struggled with the best way to do this, but State Farm has treated me very well. And many years ago as a reinsurer I did some business with them and they treated me very professionally. If I ever left State Farm I would probably move to an independent agency.
Well, one thing the big captives have is a big advantage in advertising. Independent agency companies don’t do much and the only one we have that advertises is Travelers. It is kind of strange since they are not very competitive currently in our market, but they do have a national brand. Sooner or later, they will wake up and wonder where their business went and will get back in the game, but right now, they have taken rate more than their competitors and the market hasn’t caught up with them.
Yep Dave, State Farm is just the place for you and your claims. No need to go shop anywhere for a better deal.
Phoenix, there is “no need” to jump on Dave. I don’t have any big issues with State Farm. I do think they got a little off base by going into too much financial services business rather than taking care of their P&C, but that is just my opinion.