After the experience of the past two years it is indeed a welcome change of pace to write a piece that does not focus on hurricanes in the coastal Southeast. Catastrophe losses do however seem to drive the business of insurance. And that is perhaps as it should be. But catastrophes can occur on several levels as some recent conversations with fellow subscribers tend to highlight.

In a recent discussion with a subscriber (whom I have known for a considerable number of years, dating back to a previous life in the Pentagon), it became apparent that we (AFI) really haven’t met our obligation to communicate with the subscribers on how to think about and plan one’s property and casualty insurance program. In this particular case we have a long-term (some forty year) member with a history of relatively frequent but generally small claims who was, shall we say, somewhat incensed that our underwriters wanted him to increase his homeowner deductible at the next renewal. He had interpreted this action as punitive and felt that our underwriters were indirectly challenging his integrity and called me to make certain that I understood that he was more than a bit upset at this turn of events.