Later Guys

Well guys, it has been a pleasant run- but much like Seinfeld that ended on an upswing, I will be retiring from this blogging community.
Here is my last bit of food for thought: Apply to grad school. This goes for those who have a job as well as those without. I’m currently looking at different opportunities in the business field- whether it be an MBA or an MS program- education can never hurt. In the interim, I’m almost done with a well known and respected insurance designation…which can’t hurt. Remember people of the internet- they can take away your jobs, but they can never take away your diplomas! (points to those who thought I was going to say freedom…)

Tis December

This may be a premature post since I still have a few weeks (I’ve decided not to blog next semester although it has actually been quite fun), but I’m going to leave a few tid bits of wisdom (seeing as I am all of 25 years old, I am full of it…wisdom…).
I often feel that in this world-especially in the US and in the finance industry, we all run all over the place to get ahead essentially for more money. I have in the past week come to a conclusion. Money is probably the worst reason to make a change that can exist (unless you’re talking about money you need to say, survive). If you have job satisfaction, if you are respected in your workplace, if you wake up and smile, if you’re genuinely happy in your situation- don’t give that up for any amount in the world- because trust me, it is not worth it.
I’m really running out of topics due to a complete lack of activity on your part! Next week is going to be about commuting if you guys don’t wake up!!

Retirement & your career: Baby Boomers head to Early Bird Specials

Hello readers of the blog.

Here is a quick survey I’ve decided to conduct.

I read this morning on the front page of the AI CPCU (American Institute of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters) about the increasing job opportunities and the vast opportunities that will exists in the next ten years or so, based on the fact that the Baby Boomer generation is ready or getting ready to retire (if they haven’t lost their entire retirement fund in the market, forcing them to work until approximately age 90.) This made me ponder the many points of my career thus far, which although I don’t pretend that I’ve been around for all together that long, I have met my fair share of people considering.

We work in financial services, an industry that is so incredibly welcoming to young talent willing to bust their chops to climb up the corporate ladder. Think of our friends for a minute who work in other industries, who had to start out as someone’s assistant to eventually work their way up to a decent salary and a position where they hold some responsibility for the results they are supposed to produce. Finance generally speaking offers enormous opportunity right from the get-go where young graduates can actually get their hands wet with clients instead of just fetching coffee.

This brings me (finally) to my point, using the age of 55 as a threshold, I really don’t find that there are THAT many baby boomers that will be leaving open positions. I’d say that 85% of the brokers I’ve collaborated with or other underwriters I’ve worked with are actually under 45, meaning that they have another 20 years MINIMUM to work before I can even begin to think about usurping their position!

So my question to you- demographically around your office- do you see that there will be lots of new opportunities popping up in the next 5-10 years- or is the Media just toying with our emotions?

Ask and Ye Shall Recieve

Hi Guys,
in the complete and utter absence of questions from the crowd, I’m going to talk about exactly what I did today at work.
I walked into the office at roughly lightening speed at 9:02 am, because the Tram I take to get to work was running late (LIAR- I accidently slept for 15 more minutes).
I turned on my computer and accessed the various systems that I might need over the course of the day- one for checking Claims activity, the Archiving system, and Outlook. This took about 15 minutes during which I updated myself on msnbc.com, corriere.it (major Italian newspaper) and did a Wikipedia search on the history of Santa Claus... which seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
Then I went and had a lovely caffé macchiato, which took about five minutes.
After that I spent about 3 hours responding to emails, correcting policies, translating an extension from English to Italian, trying to avoid a broker who called me 5 times for something that isn’t even from my department.
Then I went to lunch. I had a lovely plate of pasta al forno with a Coca Light followed by a normal caffé. After lunch, I took a lovely stroll behind the Columns of Saint Lawrence (San Lorenzo).
After lunch, I received a few Bind Orders- because I’m cool like that, so I sent instructions to book the premium into our system and confirmed the coverage to the respective brokers. After confirming said coverage, I had a lovely but totally non insurance related conversation with one of these brokers, who kind of loves me in this moment because of a fantastic quote I put out about a week ago.
That is my story.
Questions?
Comments?

Risk- not just a board game (Australasia...is, fyi, the key to success)

Ciao Ragazzi,
Another week in the financial world that has made me think of some interesting things. But essentially I’m going to skip over all those interesting things and go straight to something I read this morning on one of my favorite political blogs.

Political risk in foreign markets. This is something that I’m sure we’ve all studied, and definitely something that we have to think about from the Insurance side of the world. I also happen to find this fascinating. The article in sweetness & light spoke of how foreign investors are pulling out of Russian markets due to an instable political situation which caused a precipitous fall in trading. This goes back to some of my recent posts about the fantastic mingling between finance and government. Who controls assets- and what does that mean to private entities?

This is something that we think of often (or at least we should) as Insurers- especially to be honest, since I’ve been working in Europe. Why you may ask? Lets think of a basic Commercial General Liability (RCT as abbreviated in Italy) policy for an international law firm. Lets say, this firm has 3 offices, one in New York, one in Milan (otherwise I probably wouldn’t care to look at it being a snob about these things) and one in the middle of Kenya (you know, like most big international law firms have that oh so important Kenyan office). As an Underwriter, one must take into account the political enviroment in NY, Milan and Kenya and the possible ramifications on the property if, as happens so very often in New York, tribal wars break out. Seized or destroyed property becomes an Insurance claim.

While underwriting Professional liability, lets say, for our imaginary international law firm, the socio-political enviroment is something that should weigh fairly heavily on rating applied to said prospective Insured. For example, Americans (and particularly certain jurisdictions within America) are far more litigious than Italians here, which is why we can underwrite policies at premiums that are shockingly low compared to the premiums that would be generated in the New York marketplace.

Just some food for thought, which I find interesting (I TOLD you all that if you didn’t ask questions that I was going to ramble on about Insurance…I don’t lie about serious things like this).