The Invisible Bankers: Everything the Insurance Industry Never Wanted You to Know
Encyclopedia
Invisible Bankers: Everything the Insurance Industry Never Wanted You to Know is a 1982 book on the insurance industry. It was written by financial journalist Andrew Tobias
who became famous for his earlier book The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need
. It covers the financial details of life, auto, health and fire insurance
-- the types consumers normally buy. Because insurers are always the subject of fraudsters who say torch their own unprofitable businesses to collect on the insurance, who say murder the insured to collect on the death benefit, who falsify their own deaths, insurance companies need to be on their guard. In addition, an unscrupulous insurer could in theory make more profits if it could either induce their insureds into settling for less than they are entitled to or from outright wrongly denying valid clams in hopes that a small yet significant percentage would either get discouraged or wrongly believe that their claims were wrong. This makes dealings with insurers difficult. This book was the first guide to ordinary consumers into both the math and the business side of insurance.
The title refers to the fact that the insurance industry controls nearly as much money as the banking industry, yet remains essentially unregulated by the federal government and is haphazardly regulated by the states. Some argue that this may give the companies perverse incentive
s in their dealings (e.g. AIG's recent woes). If one accepts the notion that the insurance system in the U.S. has misaligned incentives stemming from structural issues coupled with clumsy regulation, it is inferable that this could be a cause of high health care costs. Unfortunately, due to the asymmetric information that defines the industry (whether it be government controlled or privately controlled), no easy solution is available. The essential message of this book certainly needs more theoretical and practical exploration because health care is a significant near and long term issue.
Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias is an American journalist, author, and columnist. His main body of work is on investment, but he has also written on politics, insurance, and other topics. Since 1999, he has been the treasurer of the Democratic National Committee.-Biography:Tobias graduated from Harvard College in...
who became famous for his earlier book The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need
The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need
The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need is a book written by Andrew Tobias and concerns commonsense rules that the ordinary saver can live by. Coming out in 1978 and revised every few years since then, it beat today's other popular investment books like the Beardstown Ladies Investment Guide...
. It covers the financial details of life, auto, health and fire insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
-- the types consumers normally buy. Because insurers are always the subject of fraudsters who say torch their own unprofitable businesses to collect on the insurance, who say murder the insured to collect on the death benefit, who falsify their own deaths, insurance companies need to be on their guard. In addition, an unscrupulous insurer could in theory make more profits if it could either induce their insureds into settling for less than they are entitled to or from outright wrongly denying valid clams in hopes that a small yet significant percentage would either get discouraged or wrongly believe that their claims were wrong. This makes dealings with insurers difficult. This book was the first guide to ordinary consumers into both the math and the business side of insurance.
The title refers to the fact that the insurance industry controls nearly as much money as the banking industry, yet remains essentially unregulated by the federal government and is haphazardly regulated by the states. Some argue that this may give the companies perverse incentive
Perverse incentive
A perverse incentive is an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable result which is contrary to the interests of the incentive makers. Perverse incentives are a type of unintended consequences.- Examples :...
s in their dealings (e.g. AIG's recent woes). If one accepts the notion that the insurance system in the U.S. has misaligned incentives stemming from structural issues coupled with clumsy regulation, it is inferable that this could be a cause of high health care costs. Unfortunately, due to the asymmetric information that defines the industry (whether it be government controlled or privately controlled), no easy solution is available. The essential message of this book certainly needs more theoretical and practical exploration because health care is a significant near and long term issue.
See also
- The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever NeedThe Only Investment Guide You'll Ever NeedThe Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need is a book written by Andrew Tobias and concerns commonsense rules that the ordinary saver can live by. Coming out in 1978 and revised every few years since then, it beat today's other popular investment books like the Beardstown Ladies Investment Guide...
- The BankersThe BankersThe Bankers is the 1975 book by the economist-writer Martin Mayer that describes the industry just at the cusp of deregulation. At the time, banks had just been released from the interest rate ceilings of Regulation Q imposed by the Fed. Also, NOW accounts allowed checkable deposits to earn...
by Martin MayerMartin Mayer (writer)Martin Prager Mayer is the writer of 35 non-fiction books, including Madison Avenue, U.S.A. , The Schools , The Lawyers , About Television , The Bankers , The Builders , Risky Business: The Collapse of Lloyd's of London , The Bankers: The Next Generation , The Fed...