Insurance Space

Television commercials urge investors to start investing in gold and silver, but investing in precious metals is as much of a risk as investing in the stock market. The value of gold, silver, and platinum is also subject to market fluctuations. A good investor diversifies his investments to minimize his risks of losing money. Fixed income investments offer a lower-risk option than other forms of investing. Many Americans are starting to include fixed-term investments as part of their portfolio.

U.S. property and casualty insurance sales dropped the most in five decades last year as businesses cut spending and reduced coverage amid the recession, an industry trade group said.

Policy sales fell 3.7 percent to $419 billion, a third straight annual decline, the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America said today in an e-mailed statement. The industry group began tracking data in 1959, and 2009’s decline is the largest on record, exceeding the 1.3 percent reduction in 2008.

WHAT’S worse than being known as the local arm of a US insurer that has lost $US12 billion ($14.7 billion) as a result of the sub-prime mortgage crunch and is the subject to allegations of former executives diverting funds? The answer, it seems, is not being known at all.

After taking over as head of the local American Insurance Group life insurance operations two years ago, Stuart Harrison has resolved to bolster the brand name of AIG which, remains the world’s biggest insurer.

“When I arrived the first question I had to get over was from people saying, ‘Who the hell is AIG? Don’t they mean IAG, or perhaps ING?’.”