Declarations

No Warren Buffett

“The heart and soul of what insurance companies should be is underwriting companies. I mean, I tell people there’s only one Warren Buffett, and I’m not him.”

—Fred Eppinger, CEO of Worcester, Mass.-based The Hanover Insurance Group, noting that insurance companies are going to have to get accustomed to lower returns on their investments and get better at making money on underwriting. “Insurance companies lose their way when they think they’re investment companies,” he told Insurance Journal.

Extraordinarily Pleased

“We are extraordinarily pleased that the Michigan Senate did not take up these bills before adjournment. This will give us time to educate legislators on the importance of underwriting tools in not only assessing risk but keeping rates low.”

—Erin Collins, Mid-Atlantic state affairs manager for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Company (NAMIC). The Michigan House of Representatives had passed legislation that would have prohibited using a driver’s education level, credit history or occupation to determine auto insurance rates. Another would prohibit rate increases for drivers who are not at fault in accidents, but the Senate failed to act on the bills before it adjourned in late December.

Horrible Men

“She is stressed out by all this. Those guys who robbed the bank were just horrible, horrible men.”

—Tom Dickson, attorney for a bank teller in Gilby, N.D., who is seeking workers’ compensation benefits after being held captive in a bank robbery in May. Edith Johnson, 56, was held up at gunpoint and left handcuffed on the floor. It was the third time the bank had been robbed in Johnson’s tenure and the second time while she was working. Johnson has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Workers Safety and Insurance denied the claim, saying state law does not cover a “mental injury arising from a mental stimulus.” Dickson said that exclusion is meant to apply to normal stress from performing everyday tasks at work, not from being handcuffed and held at gunpoint.

Take It or Leave It

“We have been duped into thinking that these AIG employees have some kind of secret code that no other employee could discover if they were hired to replace them and therefore they are able to basically hold the company ransom.”

—Cornelius Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law at Boston University, saying no AIG employee is irreplaceable. Anastasia Kelly, AIG’s vice chairman for legal, human resources, corporate affairs and corporate communications, resigned Dec. 30, 2009, reportedly because of pay curbs imposed by the Obama Administration.(Reuters)