A Few More Thoughts on AIG

You know, I had a nice long meandering post composed in my head… and then I realized just how little life is left on my laptop battery.  (Airports really need to have more electrical outlets available for use.)

There are a few questions I am looking forward to seeing answered in coming months:

1.  Within the convoluted corporate mess, there are still good, strong insurance divisions.  I’m wondering if they will be bought, or if a leaner AIG will emerge from the ashes.

2.  It’s going to be interesting seeing what sort of repercussions and regulations emerge on the permissible investments held by insurers and their parent companies.   In particular, there has been talk off and on over the past decade or two about American actuaries being required to opine on the asset side of insurer balance sheets…and I can’t help but wonder if the heat might be turned up on such discussion.

3.  Given the complexity of how insurers (and their parents) are structured corporately, and how their capital may be invested, I have got to believe that the aftermath of AIG will add a new dimension to the state-versus-federal regulation debate.  Are state DOI’s really adequately equipped to regulate mega-insurers?

4.  Surely, I can’t be the only person at a competitor of AIG’s who is extremely interested in what changes we might need to make to our new business plans for the coming months. 

And, while it’s not a question to be answered, I can’t help but notice, given the occasionally conflicting and misleading stories in the mass media, as word of federal intervention with AIG emerged, that our mainstream media really is lousy when it comes to reporting on anything requiring more than a 10-second soundbite to summarize.