The life insurance industry is filled with good people who believe in their work and their companies, but who may never have challenged the assumptions underlying their efforts.

The first American insurance company was the Friendly Society for the Mutual Insurance of Houses Against Fire, founded in Charles Town in South Carolina, in 1735.

Rule of thumb: The more trimmings an insurance plan has and the harder someone is pitching it, the faster you should run.

There's no such thing as altruism.

Hay fever suffers tend to be above average in intelligence.

I was a writer for 'New York' magazine. I had been to business school, but what did I know? Still, everybody from the receptionists on up to the editor would ask me what they should do with their money.

Nobody wants campaign finance reform more than me. It would save me a fortune.