Will AIG's Legal Problems Affect Their Long Term Care Product?

I just finished reading an article about AIG and collusion allegations by the New York Department of Justice. AIG’s Chairman, Hank Greenberg, is defending the business practices.

As a businessman, I understand that a business must do what it can to increase profits. I also know that the executives of public companies are under extreme pressure to constantly drive up the share prices of their company’s stock. Under these circumstances I think that the line where one crosses into unethical territory becomes blurred.

We’re talking about contingency commissions here. Those are basically bonuses that the company gives to its sales force (insurance brokers) when they make extra money for the company. It serves as an incentive to increase sales and sell the most profitable products. That doesn’t sound like an unethical practice until you start to look at the players. Rather than a growing company trying to get a foothold in a market, we’re talking about the largest insurance provider in the world. Every practice that they employ has far reaching effects. That makes each decision very important to the company and hundred of thousands of other people all over the world. Also, the sales force that we are discussing happens to be comprised of the largest insurance brokerages in the world. These are Fortune 500 companies that employ thousands. They generate billions of dollars in revenue. Similar to AIG, they have a responsibility to do what is right.

I guess that I am saying that there is a double standard, and rightfully so. The larger a company is, and the more people its decisions affect, the more responsibility it should take when setting policy.
“How does this relate to long term care insurance?” you might ask. As the largest insurer in the world, every move affects the entire market. For instance, smaller companies look to larger companies like AIG when determining whether to institute price increases, and by how much. Other companies look to the most successful insurance company in the world in order to improve their own processes. While the issues we discuss today may not have huge impacts on an individual’s long term care insurance premium, there is a larger issue at stake here. The issue is: we must hold the most powerful companies to a higher standard. With great power comes great responsibility. It’s time for the companies that we depend on to behave responsibly.