10 uncovered at ERC. Really cleaver work goes undiscovered. 10 here and 10 there pretty soon thats 100’s here and 100’s there maybe 1000’s. $7.2 million @ ERC and so on and so on $7.2 million here and there pretty soon there is big money.
I don’t understand why this is such a big deal. Agents at Lockton, Sullivan Curtis, Aon, Willis and other companies I know have done this for years. The investigators Just use ERC and Marsh as big targets to pad their own resumes – just like the Martha Stewart trail (what a joke)!
Makes no difference whether its ENRON, Martha, AON, AIG, ERC, Hartford or you and me. It makes not difference who is building their resume. Cheating is cheating even if a jurk blows the whistle. Today we seem to have forgotten that crooks are crooks even if the are paid millions a year and have their own magazine.
It is a BIG deal and doesn’t matter who does it. What happened to Ethical behavior? That’s why Ethics is now part of CE except those that need to heed the message won’t as long as they can get away with it.
Insurance is a confidence game; licensed to succeed. Insurance is not a con game; licensed to steal.
Getting caught at bid rigging has done serious damage to Marsh’s reputation, perhaps rightly so.
Trust needs to be earned. In insurance it is done via competition with others. Most do it annually by bidding, some only every three years. Some may abuse the trust placed in them with statements like, “no need to involve other brokers, I’ll shop the market for you.”
A high bid used to be, “ya, I’ll write it, but at my price.” We no longer need to worry about bid rigging, multiple brokers will work on everything…as it should be.
The only comment I have is about the poor spelling and grammar used by those who reply or make comments on this website. While this may not fall into the ‘ethics’ category, I’m amazed that professionals aren’t more professional in their communications!
Over the past two decades, some of the most morally corrupt individuals in this country have come from the far right and steadfastly vote republican. But Don, morality should not be a political issue, but a way of conducting ourselves in our daily lives including business.
While I will admit that the red states have their share of “bankrupt” types and general wackos, after having lived in both red states and blue states for significant periods of my life, my own direct observation with my eyes and ears is that the blue states have a MUCH greater per cent of people who have lost their moral moorings.
Will you agree, for example, that a person who asserts, in essence, “What’s the big deal? Everyone’s doing it.” is pretty much off the track? How can a person like that be within themselves? How can a person like that be trustworthy?
I agree that Cathy’s outlook is warped, but to automatically assume by one’s opinion where they physically live is way ‘off the mark.’ You admit to living in numerous states as have I. Overall I have seen little differance between people living in urban communities and I have lived in both Northern & Southern states. Right now I am living in Florida( a red state) and Home of the ‘Con’ artist. I don’t believe any one organization holds total rights to moral integrity, especially in the political arena which is more closely aligned with moral corruption.
Unfortunately, with people like Cathy, you have to get to know them before their true colors are revealed.
I would like to believe the person who said this will all be solved by a massive return to competition among brokers for every account. However, I doubt that will happen.
The fact is that Risk Managers or others at the Accounts will continue to formally or informally appoint brokers-of-record because: (1) their boss told them to deal with Fred at Broke & Broker, OR (2) because generating an RFP, allocating markets, receiving proposals, analyzing them, creating apples and apples out of proposals with kumquats and hand grenades and then treading the political minefield of awarding to this one instead of that one–will ultimately be too fraught with anxiety or just plain work.
Some will simply continue to “trust” a single broker and hope that their trust will be rewarded with ethical consideration by people who understand that they have professional obligations, fiduciary responsibility and ethical imperatives. Most of the time, since the same people we expect ethical behavior from are under pressure to meet sales quotas, the result will be unhappy. However, we can always go back to ignoring that reality once Spitzer’s investigation move on to some other moral lapse.
In the meantime, Marsh will continue to rely, as IBM did for so many years, on the fact that it’s the biggest and, therefore, choosing them as sole broker is a defensible action by the Risk Manager (or CEO, or CFO, or Board Member–or whoever is calling the shots).
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10 uncovered at ERC. Really cleaver work goes undiscovered. 10 here and 10 there pretty soon thats 100’s here and 100’s there maybe 1000’s. $7.2 million @ ERC and so on and so on $7.2 million here and there pretty soon there is big money.
Cheating is cheating. Is 10 OK?
I don’t understand why this is such a big deal. Agents at Lockton, Sullivan Curtis, Aon, Willis and other companies I know have done this for years. The investigators Just use ERC and Marsh as big targets to pad their own resumes – just like the Martha Stewart trail (what a joke)!
Makes no difference whether its ENRON, Martha, AON, AIG, ERC, Hartford or you and me. It makes not difference who is building their resume. Cheating is cheating even if a jurk blows the whistle. Today we seem to have forgotten that crooks are crooks even if the are paid millions a year and have their own magazine.
Jim
It is a BIG deal and doesn’t matter who does it. What happened to Ethical behavior? That’s why Ethics is now part of CE except those that need to heed the message won’t as long as they can get away with it.
Insurance is a confidence game; licensed to succeed. Insurance is not a con game; licensed to steal.
Getting caught at bid rigging has done serious damage to Marsh’s reputation, perhaps rightly so.
Trust needs to be earned. In insurance it is done via competition with others. Most do it annually by bidding, some only every three years. Some may abuse the trust placed in them with statements like, “no need to involve other brokers, I’ll shop the market for you.”
A high bid used to be, “ya, I’ll write it, but at my price.” We no longer need to worry about bid rigging, multiple brokers will work on everything…as it should be.
The only comment I have is about the poor spelling and grammar used by those who reply or make comments on this website. While this may not fall into the ‘ethics’ category, I’m amazed that professionals aren’t more professional in their communications!
“A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.”
Albert Camus
Looks like Cathy Speis (who probably unknowingly represents a pretty large group) is morally bankrupt. Let me guess. She lives in a blue state.
Over the past two decades, some of the most morally corrupt individuals in this country have come from the far right and steadfastly vote republican. But Don, morality should not be a political issue, but a way of conducting ourselves in our daily lives including business.
Karen,
While I will admit that the red states have their share of “bankrupt” types and general wackos, after having lived in both red states and blue states for significant periods of my life, my own direct observation with my eyes and ears is that the blue states have a MUCH greater per cent of people who have lost their moral moorings.
Will you agree, for example, that a person who asserts, in essence, “What’s the big deal? Everyone’s doing it.” is pretty much off the track? How can a person like that be within themselves? How can a person like that be trustworthy?
Those are my questions.
Don:
I agree that Cathy’s outlook is warped, but to automatically assume by one’s opinion where they physically live is way ‘off the mark.’ You admit to living in numerous states as have I. Overall I have seen little differance between people living in urban communities and I have lived in both Northern & Southern states. Right now I am living in Florida( a red state) and Home of the ‘Con’ artist. I don’t believe any one organization holds total rights to moral integrity, especially in the political arena which is more closely aligned with moral corruption.
Unfortunately, with people like Cathy, you have to get to know them before their true colors are revealed.
I would like to believe the person who said this will all be solved by a massive return to competition among brokers for every account. However, I doubt that will happen.
The fact is that Risk Managers or others at the Accounts will continue to formally or informally appoint brokers-of-record because: (1) their boss told them to deal with Fred at Broke & Broker, OR (2) because generating an RFP, allocating markets, receiving proposals, analyzing them, creating apples and apples out of proposals with kumquats and hand grenades and then treading the political minefield of awarding to this one instead of that one–will ultimately be too fraught with anxiety or just plain work.
Some will simply continue to “trust” a single broker and hope that their trust will be rewarded with ethical consideration by people who understand that they have professional obligations, fiduciary responsibility and ethical imperatives. Most of the time, since the same people we expect ethical behavior from are under pressure to meet sales quotas, the result will be unhappy. However, we can always go back to ignoring that reality once Spitzer’s investigation move on to some other moral lapse.
In the meantime, Marsh will continue to rely, as IBM did for so many years, on the fact that it’s the biggest and, therefore, choosing them as sole broker is a defensible action by the Risk Manager (or CEO, or CFO, or Board Member–or whoever is calling the shots).
Cathy Speis:
I was wondering if you are Cathy from Cumberland, Maryland?