A Brief History of The Insurance Forum
by Joseph M. Belth
During the early stages of my professional career, in the 1960s and early 1970s, I was frustrated by the unwillingness of the insurance trade press to allow open discussion of controversial topics. Indeed, I tabulated 31 incidents during that period in which attempts were made to suppress my views. Among the periodicals involved in two or more such incidents were The Actuary (the newsletter of the Society of Actuaries), the CLU Journal, and the life-health edition of the National Underwriter.
In the fall of 1973, after unsuccessful efforts to find an organization willing to publish an independent monthly periodical, I decided to move ahead on my own. In December 1973, I launched The Insurance Forum with publication of the January 1974 issue, and have been publishing it continuously ever since.
The first few issues consisted of topics I had been eager to discuss for years, but for which I had never had a suitable outlet. As soon as publication began, however, readers literally showered me with additional topics they felt needed airing. Virtually all of these topics involved criticism of existing practices, and it soon became apparent that the bulk of the material in The Insurance Forum was going to involve suggestions for eliminating undesirable or questionable practices. Almost never do I receive suggestions involving desirable practices that should be emulated. In 1979, I even offered a reward for any idea that would lead to a "positive" article, but still received virtually no ideas of that kind.
Although most of our articles have involved criticism of existing practices, there have been exceptions. A few examples are "Connecticut Mutual's Claims Practices" (January 1976), "Prudential's Claims Practices" (April 1977), "The Actuaries of 'The Quiet Company' Assume a Leadership Role" (June 1979), "Life Insurance Consumerism At Its Best (August 1979), "Massachusetts Mutual Comes Through" (August 1981), "Great-West Life's Transfer of Its United States Policyowners" (March 1993), "Corporate Governance Activism at TIAA-CREF" (May 1997), "More on the Canadian Approach to the Allocation of Value to Policyholders in Demutualizations" (August 1999), and "General Electric Takes a Leadersip Role in Disclosure of Fractional Premium Charges as Annual Percentage Rates" (January 2001).
I have always considered insurance to be one of the miracles of an advanced economic society. Not long after my first exposure to insurance, however, I began to see problems with the way that miraculous concept works out in practice. I feel that the problems should be discussed openly, in the belief that solutions can be found if only persons interested and knowledgeable in insurance can be persuaded to confront the problems.
An important objective of The Insurance Forum, therefore, is to provide a vehicle through which insurance problems can be discussed openly. Another objective—a corollary of the first—is to accomplish insurance reform. After all, why bother discussing problems if nothing substantive happens as a result of the discussion?
Although a great deal of effort has gone into The Insurance Forum, I think the jury is still out on the extent to which the objectives have been met. On the first objective—providing a vehicle for discussing insurance problems—it might be argued that The Insurance Forum has become primarily a vehicle for my views, even though that was not what was intended at the outset. At the same time, it should be recognized that my views have been shaped to a considerable extent by the views of those readers who have taken the trouble to write to me. On the second objective—insurance reform—it might be argued that The Insurance Forum has not accomplished very much because it is difficult to pinpoint specific results. I am not discouraged on this score, however, because I think The Insurance Forum has had a major impact on the thinking of people in decision-making positions in the insurance industry.
I have included elsewhere on this website some excerpts from articles written at least ten years ago. In retrospect, I consider the articles from which the excerpts are taken to be some of our most important. To review the excerpts, please select "In Retrospect" under the "About Us" button, or click here.