Declarations

Weighing the Cost

“Certainly there are thousands of drivers out there who can ill-afford this additional cost. That’s always the case. I think that’s outweighed by the tens of thousands who are left uncompensated by the damage that minimally insured drivers do.”

—Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon comments on a law that went into effect Jan. 1, 2010, that increases the required minimum liability auto insurance coverage in his state. The increase is expected to hike insurance rates for more than 1 million Louisiana motorists. AP

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.

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. (Reuters)