Insurance Vs History

Murder. Intrigue. And a financial product that bets on the death of people you don't know. Tontines!

Welcome to the Insurance vs History Podcast! In this episode, I dig into the rise and fall of the tontine, a unique life insurance product that includes a mortality lottery. How did a financial product build bridges and real estate, fund wars, and even contribute to the French revolution? I'm talking Kings, Insurance Barons, and estimating who would live longest. What could be more exciting?

Sources and Links:

Books:

• com: King William's Tontine: Why the Retirement Annuity of the Future Should Resemble its Past (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics (Hardcover)): 9781107076129: Milevsky, Moshe A.: Books Milevsky has a nice history of tontines in here, and then a discussion of the math and how he thinks a tontine could work. If you're an actuary, you probably will understand the math, but laypeople likely will not.
• com: The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity eBook : Gratton, Lynda, Scott, Andrew J.: Kindle Store The book that prompted the interest in tontines in Japan.
• Betting On Lives: The Culture of Life Insurance in England, 1695-1775 (Politics, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain): Clark, Geoffrey: 9780719056758: Amazon.com: Books

Articles:

• Japan's Aging Population Breathes New Life Into a Centuries-Old Investment Idea - WSJ (behind a paywall, sorry)
• The Tontine Principle - Historic UK (historic-uk.com) Short overview of using tontines for smaller public works projects or private projects
• Tontine Thinking - The Actuary Magazine Article by Moshe Milevsky if you don't want to read the book
• It's sleazy, it's totally illegal, and yet it could become the future of retirement - The Washington Post Well, I wouldn't go exactly that far, but okay, Washington Post, hit that clickbait.
• The Tontine Coffee House (narratively.com)
• Alexander Hamilton's Tontine Proposal on JSTOR by Robert M. Jennings, Donald F. Swanson and Andrew P. Trout
• Tontine Insurance and the Armstrong Investigation: A Case of Stifled Innovation, 1868-1905 on JSTOR by Roger L. Ransom and Richard Sutch

Music Credits:

• Boulangerie by Jeremy Sherman, courtesy of NeoSounds: Boulangerie, LynneMusic | NeoSounds music library

Contact Me:

• [email protected]

Website: https://insurancevshistory.libsyn.com

Contact me!

Twitter: @insurancevshist

Instagram: @ insurancevshistory

Facebook: Insurance vs History | Facebook

When a secretive industry meets an ambitious attorney general, what happens next?

Welcome to the Insurance vs History Podcast! In this episode, I discuss Eliot Spitzer's attempt to reform the insurance industry: specifically, the 2004 investigation into the big three insurance brokers and contingent commissions.

Sources and Links:

• Inside Eliot Spitzer's Insurance-Industry Probe - Nymag Written in late 2004. A good overview.
• New York Opens Inquiry Into Insurance Brokerage Business - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
• Hat Trick: A 3rd Unit Of Marsh Under Fire - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
• Insurance Broker's Cozy Ties May Prove Hard to Untangle - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
• Beyond Disclosure: The Case for Banning Contingent Commissions 25 Yale Law & Policy Review 2006-2007 (heinonline.org)
• The Small Laws: Eliot Spitzer and the Way to Insurance Market Reform 74 Fordham Law Review 2005-2006 (heinonline.org)

Books:

• com: Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (Audible Audio Edition): Peter Elkind, Arthur Morey, Tantor Audio: Audible Books & Originals This is a more general book that covers his entire life up until about 2010 and goes into a lot of detail about the sex scandal. The author did sit down with Spitzer and there is a documentary based on the book as well (Client 9). There is not very much about the insurance investigation but it's a good overview of his life.
• Spoiling for a Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer: Masters, Brooke A.: 9780805079616: Amazon.com: Books This book was written before he became governor, and is an excellent breakdown of the investigations he launched when he was Attorney General, including the insurance investigation.

Music Credits:

• Boulangerie by Jeremy Sherman, courtesy of NeoSounds: Boulangerie, LynneMusic | NeoSounds music library

Contact Me:

• [email protected]

Website: https://insurancevshistory.libsyn.com

Contact me!

Twitter: @insurancevshist

Instagram: @ insurancevshistory

Facebook: Insurance vs History | Facebook

Insurance vs The Gambling Act of 1774

Why can't you take out a life insurance policy on anyone you want?

Welcome to the Insurance vs History Podcast! In my seventh episode, I talk about the early development of life insurance in England, and how policies were often a lot closer to gambling than to insurance. Join me as I investigate some of the crazy things you could do with a life insurance policy in the 18th century and how the Gambling Act changed everything.

Website: https://insurancevshistory.libsyn.com

Contact me!

Twitter: @insurancevshist

Instagram: @ insurancevshistory

Facebook: Insurance vs History | Facebook

Email: [email protected]

Links:

• A License to Bet: Life insurance and the Gambling Act in the British Courts https://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/history/documents/14.pdf
• Insurable Interest and the Doctrine of Privity of Contract | (lawexplores.com)
• Senior Life Settlements: A Cautionary Tale (fdic.gov) A well-written, great explanation of SLS and the risks associated with them. In particular, well worth the case study read where a bank allows a company to secure loans using life insurance policies they purchased as third-party transactions.
• The Incredible Chevalier d'Eon, Who Left France as a Male Spy and Returned as a Christian Woman - Atlas Obscura
• com: Monsieur d'Eon Is a Woman: A Tale of Political Intrigue and Sexual Masquerade: 9780801867316: Kates, Gary: Books I didn't get a chance to read this but it's on my to-do list.
• The Chevalier d'Eon | British Museum
• William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield - Wikipedia

Law Journal Articles (sorry, no links):

• Emigration, Fraud, Humanitarianism, and the Founding of Londonderry, South Carolina, 1763-1765, Robert A. Selig, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Autumn 1989, volume 23, No 1 pp 1-23

Books:

• Betting On Lives: The Culture of Life Insurance in England, 1695-1775 (Politics, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain): Clark, Geoffrey: 9780719056758: Amazon.com: Books A great starting point to understand the entire picture of the culture of betting and life insurance in England.
• Annals, anecdotes and legends: a chronicle of life assurance : Francis, John : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Written in 1853, this book is archived online.
• A History Of British Insurance : E Raynes : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive From 1948, archived online

Music Credits:

• Boulangerie by Jeremy Sherman, courtesy of NeoSounds: Boulangerie, LynneMusic | NeoSounds music library

Insurance vs Larry Silverstein and the World Trade Center Collapse on 9.11

What happens when a terrorist attack becomes a highly litigated claim?

Welcome to the Insurance vs History Podcast! In my sixth episode, I take a deep dive into the legal wrangling around the property policy covering the World Trade Center. This is a wild ride!

Links:

• 9/11 – An Occurrence That Changed The World - Insurance - United States (mondaq.com) Really outstanding summary of the various lawsuits and coverage issues surrounding whether or not the WTC attack was one occurrence or two.
• https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/how-lawmakers-protected-and-failed-9-11-first-responders.html
• Larry Silverstein - Wikipedia Do yourself a favor and limit your searches for Larry Silverstein to this article. The amount of horrible antisemitic and conspiracy theory websites that come up with a google search of his name is not worth sorting through.
• Larry Silverstein Writes His Own WTC History – SURFACE (surfacemag.com)
• 15 Years After 9/11, Larry Silverstein Finally Recreated WTC || World Trade Center
• The Twin Towers Project: A Cautionary Tale: The building of the World Trade Center showed what happens when pols and bureaucrats, rather than the market, control redevelopment. | City Journal (city-journal.org) Definitely an opinion piece, but with some good history.
• World Trade Center - Development, 9/11 Attacks & Rebuilding - HISTORY
• Judge seals Willis E&O documents on WTC placement | Business Insurance

Law Journal Articles (sorry, no links):

• Ten Years after 9/11: Property Insurance Lessons Learned, Scott G. Johnson, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Law Journal Spring Summer 2011, Vol 46, No 3 /4 pp 658-733: Outstanding overview of all the property issues and cases brought in court, including Business Interruption, Salvage, and Tenants in the WTC building.
• THE INSURANCE AFTERMATH OF SEPTEMBER 11: MYRIAD CLAIMS, MULTIPLE LINES, ARGUMENTS OVER OCCURRENCE COUNTING, WAR RISK EXCLUSIONS, THE FUTURE OF TERRORISM COVERAGE, AND NEW ISSUES OF GOVERNMENT ROLE Jeffrey W. Stempel, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Law Journal Spring 2002, Vol. 37, No 3 pp 817-882: Overview of issues including War Exclusion, but as it was less than a year after 9.11, you have to read it knowing a lot of his assertions wouldn't hold true.
• As WTC trial proceeds, jurors demand clarification; Michael Ha National Underwriter Property and Casualty Risk and Benefits Management Vol 108, Issue 7: Michael Ha wrote a lot of articles on this trial. I haven't cited all of them here, but I used a lot of them in this research.
• Broker didn't inform insurers of form switch, Douglas McLeod, Business Insurance, Vol 38, no 9, March 2004: another reporter who wrote a lot of articles that I used.
• WTC Case shows importance of documenting negotiations, Akos Swierkiewicz, Business Insurance, June 21 2004

Articles that would require a subscription:

• WTC update: Silverstein shenanigans earn court ban but contempt motion dropped (insuranceinsider.com)
• Willis to hand over WTC E&O documents (insuranceinsider.com) This is soooo funny.
• World Trade Center Deal Remains in Doubt - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Books:

Hire These People:

• My audio editor, and AMAZING Voice Over Actor—who did all the VO for this episode: Zach Stinnett

Music Credits:

• Boulangerie by Jeremy Sherman, courtesy of NeoSounds: Boulangerie, LynneMusic | NeoSounds music library

Contact Me:

• [email protected]

Welcome to the Insurance vs History Podcast! In my fifth (and supersized!) episode, I discuss the various reasons why Asbestos and the insurance crisis surrounding Asbestos liability claims in the 1980s nearly brought down the entire Lloyds marketplace. Join me for a deeper dive into General Liability Insurance, an explanation of the Asbestos crisis, and Names at Lloyds!

Links:

• How the Names lost their shirts | Money | The Guardian
• The $200 Billion Miscarriage Of Justice Asbestos lawyers are pitting plaintiffs who aren't sick against companies that never made the stuff--and extracting billions for themselves. - March 4, 2002 (fortune.com)
• Asbestos Litigation | RAND
• The Bitter Fight Over the Manville Trust - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
• TSHA | Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation (tshaonline.org)

Law Journal Articles (sorry, no links):

• Assessing the Coverage Carnage: Asbestos Liability and Insurance after Three Decades of Dispute By Jeffrey W. Stempel, 2005. 12 Conn. Ins. L.J. 349 (2005-2006)
• Asbestos Litigation Reform By Janet Brierton, Associate Legislative Attorney, Feb 17, 2004 OLR Research Report

Books:

• AN Air That Kills: Andrew Schneider, David McCumber: 9780399150951: Amazon.com: Books
• Ultimate Risk: The Inside Story of the Lloyd's Catastrophe: Raphael, Adam: 9781568580562: Amazon.com: Books
• On the Brink: How a Crisis Transformed Lloyd's of London: 9781137299291: Economics Books @ Amazon.com
• Dust-Up: Asbestos Litigation and the Failure of Commonsense Policy Reform: Barnes, Jeb: 9781589017665: Amazon.com: Books

Hire These People:

• My audio editor, and AMAZING Voice Over Actor—who did all the VO for this episode: Zach Stinnett

Music Credits:

• Boulangerie by Jeremy Sherman, courtesy of NeoSounds: Boulangerie, LynneMusic | NeoSounds music library

Contact Me:

• [email protected]

Welcome to the Insurance vs History Podcast! In my fourth episode, I investigate how insurance saved San Francisco after the Great earthquake—or the Great Fire, depending on who you ask--almost destroyed the city entirely. Join me to learn about mitigating risk through policy wording, the concept of "directly or indirectly", and why building a city by creating land from the bay was a terrible idea.

Selected Links:

• The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (usgs.gov)
• San Francisco 1906 Earthquake - Lloyd's (lloyds.com)
• The San Francisco disaster : honest and dishonest insurance/ speech of Julius Kahn, of California, in the House of Representatives, Thursday, June 28, 1906. (berkeley.edu)
• Museum of the City of San Francisco (sfmuseum.org)
• Online Exhibit - Introduction - San Francisco Earthquake and Fire - The Bancroft Library - University of California, Berkeley
  • Online Exhibit - Buildings Sank Like Quicksand - San Francisco Earthquake and Fire - The Bancroft Library - University of California, Berkeley—photos shows the Valencia Hotel after sinking. Whoa.
  • Online Exhibit - Burned Districts of San Francisco - San Francisco Earthquake and Fire - The Bancroft Library - University of California, Berkeley Photos shows the map of the burned areas of SF.
• (99+) (PDF) Earthquake versus Fire: The Struggle over Insurance in the Aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Disaster | Eleonora Rohland - Academia.edu article about Reinsurance and the attempt to introduce a standardized earthquake clause
• Six-20Bits-20or-20Bust-20Insurance-20Litigation.pdf (pillsburylaw.com)

Books:

• com: Seismic City: An Environmental History of San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books): 9780295742465: Dyl, Joanna L., Sutter, Paul S., Sutter, Paul S.: Books
• Disaster! The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906: Kurzman, Dan: 9780061051746: Amazon.com: Books

Hire These People:

• My audio editor, and AMAZING Voice Over Actor—who did all the VO for this episode: Zach Stinnett

Music Credits:

• Boulangerie by Jeremy Sherman, courtesy of NeoSounds: Boulangerie, LynneMusic | NeoSounds music library

Contact Me:

• [email protected]

Welcome to the Insurance vs History Podcast! In my third episode, I investigate the insurance claims resulting from the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and the issues that arose as a result. Join me for a discussion of crazy 1850s laws, Lloyds of London, the invention of the wireless telegraph and conspiracy theories!

Links:

• HMS Lutine - Lloyd's (lloyds.com)
• pdf – an awesome visual of the Hull and Machinery Slip for the Titanic
• Lloyd's and the Titanic - Lloyd's (lloyds.com)
• The Craziest Titanic Conspiracy Theories, Explained - HISTORY – ps. If you decide to search for these theories online, be aware many of them have been co-opted by the QAnon movement. Google at your peril.
• Encyclopedia Titanica: Titanic Facts, History and Biography (encyclopedia-titanica.org) – great overall reference
• Limitation of Liability Act of 1851 - Wikipedia
• Microsoft Word - LCB_16_3_Art_8_Zekala.doc (lclark.edu) – Slightly dense legal analysis of the Liability lawsuits filed
• In the Matter of the Petition of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited, for Limitation of its Liability as owner of the steamship TITANIC (archives.gov) – Legal documents including lists of lost property, loss of life claims, etc.

Books:

• Night to Remember (Holt Paperback): LORD, WALTER: 9780805077643: Amazon.com: Books

Hire These People:

• My audio editor, and AMAZING Voice Over Actor—who did all the VO for this episode: Zach Stinnett

Music Credits:

• Boulangerie by Jeremy Sherman, courtesy of NeoSounds: Boulangerie, LynneMusic | NeoSounds music library

Contact Me:

• [email protected]

Welcome to the Insurance Vs History Podcast! In my second episode, I discover that Coffee had a huge influence on the development of the modern insurance industry. Join me for a discussion of Coffee, Lloyds of London, and early Marine insurance.

Links:

• Edward Lloyd and his Coffee House. (lr.org)
• Lloyd's Coffee-House | Mashburn Genealogy Archives
• English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries - Wikipedia
• Lloyd's of London - Wikipedia
• Clubs, Taverns and Coffee-Houses in Georgian London (pascalbonenfant.com)
• This 17th-Century "Women's Petition Against Coffee" Probably Wasn't About Women, or Coffee | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine
• The Coffeehouse Culture | British Literature Wiki (udel.edu)
• How to Make Seventeenth Century Coffee in Four Easy Steps | HuffPost Life

Books:

• A History of Lloyd's, from the Founding of Lloyd's Coffee House to the Present Day by Wright, Charles & Fayle, C. Ernest: Very Good- Hard Cover (1928) | Feldman's Books (abebooks.com)
• Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World: Pendergrast, Mark: 9781541699380: Amazon.com: Books
• com: The Coffee-House: A Cultural History eBook: Ellis, Markman: Kindle Store

Hire These People:

• My audio editor, and AMAZING Voice Over Actor: Zach Stinnett

Music Credits:

• Boulangerie by Jeremy Sherman, courtesy of NeoSounds: Boulangerie, LynneMusic | NeoSounds music library

Contact Me:

[email protected]

Welcome to the Insurance Vs History Podcast! In my first episode, a recent re-watch of the movie Gangs of New York inspires me to ask if insurance inadvertently encouraged gang activity in 19th century New York. In investigating this question I dive into a discussion of the history of firefighting, 19th century fire insurance in England and the United States, and how insurance evolved as a result.

Links:

• Fire Insurance in the United States (eh.net)
• A Short History of Fire Marks, The World's Hottest Insurance-Related Antiques - Atlas Obscura
• Home - The Philadelphia Contributionship (1752.com)
• In the Early 19th Century, Firefighters Fought Fires ... and Each Other | At the Smithsonian | Smithsonian Magazine
• The African American Firefighter Museum (aaffmuseum.org)
• The Inspiring History of Women in Firefighting in the US | Amazing Women In History
• Fires in Edo - Wikipedia
• Edo Firemen - artelino
• New York Draft Riots - HISTORY
• The New York City Draft Riots of 1863 (uchicago.edu)
• Kim Kardashian and the Rise of Private Firefighting - The Atlantic

Books:

• The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld: Herbert Asbury, Russell Shorto: 9780307388988: Amazon.com: Books
• Eating Smoke: Fire in Urban America, 1800–1950: Tebeau, Mark: 9780801867910: Amazon.com: Books
• Five Points: The 19th Century New York City Neighborhood that Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum: Anbinder, Tyler: 9781439141557: Amazon.com: Books

Hire These People:

• My audio editor, and Voice Over Actor: Zach Stinnett
• Voice Over Actor Jeff Kornbrot: Jeff Kornbrot - Professional Voice Over Talent | Voices or at [email protected]

Contact Me:

• [email protected]