When the current century started, one thing that struck me was how much it felt like the 20th century.
Another thing that struck me, when I looked at lists of the insurance companies that National Underwriter (a print publication that feeds news into LifeHealthPro.com) covered in 1901, the names on the list were mostly the same companies we were covering in 1901.
See also: 7 reasons National Underwriter’s new New York location blows my mind
A few companies merged out of existence, or dwindled into insignificance, and a few came to vigorous, chart-topping life, but, mostly, the big insurers went out, kept writing business, and survived panics, then: the Great Depression, World War II, Korea, stagflation, even (mostly) the rise of managed care.
Even the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and various outbreaks of flu that looked as if “It Could Be the Next Pandemic!” barely registered. Occasionally, a carrier would mention something like that in a footnote, to entertain the securities analysts.
Now, low interest rates and the upheaval related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) seem to be about to change the Top 10 charts.