SHOW ME THE MONEY!!

I'm agree with Donna. She wonders how an industry that was founded on good faith has strayed? That's an easy answer. Show me the money. Show me where, when and how it pays to be ethical. Show me a shareholder of an publicly traded insurer who says its okay if my shares don't perform well as long as ABC insurer is ethical. Show me a policyholder who says its okay to charge me a little more on my policy to fund ethical development. In today's environment where a long term investment is measured in days, not years, ethics seems to be a long term goal that can be shelved for short term results. Its easy to talk ethics, but its better to show good results. Reputation is important, and I don't want to get a reputation as a manager who can't deliver good results.

Now don't get me wrong, investors don't want their shares of a publicly traded insurer to suffer if the insurer "gets caught" doing something unethical. Similarly, policyholders don't want to be the one who suffers because of unethical business practices of their insurer. But if someone else gets caught, or someone else suffers, well that's okay, right? I mean, come on, what are the chances of getting caught?

Some would say that it's not just our industry, its the era we live in. Rogue traders, performance enhancing drugs, price fixing, price gouging, etc...

Just win baby!

The ends justifies the means!

Doesn't it?

I like to think that we see more unethical behavior today, not because there is more, but because it is publicized more. I think there was just as much unethical behavior in the industry 20, 30 or 50 years ago as there is today. I'm not saying that its okay, it is what it is. What I hope that this publicity means that there will be less unethical behavior tomorrow.

The simple fact of the matter is that it is difficult to measure ethics using any type of measure, let alone financial measures.

Ethics is qualitative, not quantitative.

Ethics is an all the time thing, not just a some of the time thing.

Our ethics are always there, they just aren't as apparent when the decisions are easy, they are apparent when the decisions are hard. Choosing between what's legal and what's illegal isn't ethics. Ethics is choosing between two rights, knowing that your decision has an impact on others. Ethics is making decisions that can be win-lose decisions that involve you determining who wins and who loses. Ethics is making those decisions that keep you awake at night.

I can teach you ABOUT ethics, but I'm not sure I can teach you ethics.

I believe I am an ethical person. I'd like to believe I am just as ethical as the people who came before me in this industry, maybe even more so, and I hope those who follow will be more ethical than me.