Author: David Merkel

My bias in understanding banks in the insurance business is that banking and insurance are fundamentally different businesses, but there are areas of overlap where the participation of banks sense. In Europe, indiscriminate...

One major trend that has existed in the insurance industry over the past several decades is increased specialization. This is true globally, but is most true in the US. In general, being good at one area of the insurance...

I get e-mails from those that want to invest with me, and those that want to work for me.  My, but I am humbled.  I never thought that this blog might produce a business; I only started it to give back to the general...

If someone wants to drive a car or take out a secured loan, personal lines insurance typically needs to be bought to protect the interests of other drivers, and lenders, respectively. Personal lines coverages are simpler in...

I view the insurance industry as a loosely related group of sub-industries, where knowing something about one sub-industry tells little about any other sub-industry. Even within each sub-industry, companies can be very different...

My goal is to open for business at the beginning of January 2011.  I could have started earlier, but I didn’t feel that giving clients an additional bit of tax data was worth the early start.  In general, I have...

I’m working on my quarterly reshaping — where I choose new companies to enter my portfolio.  The first part of this is industry analysis. My main industry model is illustrated in the graphic.  Green...