The Yale Club Insurance Study Group was founded in 1943, when the initial group of seven members formalized an ad hoc discussion group they had been participating in for several years. Our founders –Isidore Hirschfeld, Herbert Karlsruher, John Kellam, David Marks Junior, Vincent Miletti, C. Lamont Post and Robert Redpath – probably didn’t plan for the Yale Club Insurance Study Group to be around 80 years later and didn’t always track the group’s evolution, so our history is both brief and unfortunately incomplete. 

The name of the group was taken from where the group held its meetings: the historic Yale Club, which having opened in 1915 pre-dates the YCISG by a quarter of a century.

The purpose of the study group was to provide a forum for insurance professionals to discuss problems and share ideas to better understand the uses of life insurance in the estate planning process. The timing of the YCISG’s founding also proved fortuitous: its founding just before World War II predates America’s post-war economic boom, which led to incredible growth in the insurance industry, especially life insurance. One item we enjoy pointing out is that life insurance penetration accelerates as families become wealthier, and this is a fantastic indicator of the pace at which the American economy grew in this time.

Over the years, the scope of the group has expanded from exclusively involving life insurance professionals to include lawyers, actuaries, accountants and money managers. The subject matter has also grown to include business insurance, employee benefits, trust and estate planning and other areas in which life insurance plays an integral role. 

YCISG members are deeply invested in these areas including changes in the tax law, regulatory evolution, and other areas that impact on this type of high level planning. As a consequence of being industry leaders, all members have written articles, lectured and appeared on panels for professional organizations in the legal, accounting, actuarial and estate planning fields.

How did we come to realize we are the oldest study group of our kind? This is an interesting story that was passed down. In the late 1960s, the Million Dollar Roundtable – a “global, independent association of the world’s leading life insurance and financial services professionals” – did a survey of its members’ participation in study groups. The data they collected over a two-year period revealed that the YCISG was the oldest continuous study group of insurance professionals in the country. We are very proud of this fact, and it is a reason that the current generation of leaders is working hard to continue this prestigious and exclusive association.

Not only is our membership made up of professionals who have been in the insurance industry or allied fields for a long time, but the YCISG has counted successive generations of families among our membership.

However, unlike a fraternity, there are no legacy admissions. To keep the YCISG an exclusive and focused group of industry thought leaders, the bar for admission has always been and remains very high. This has kept the YCISG a small and intimate collection of professionals who recognize that this is a special group. 

We have more than eight decades of thought leadership and best practice development for some of the most successful and carefully positioned insurance professionals in the industry. 

As we know, life and business sometimes take strange and unexpected turns. We always knew that we needed to be nimble in order to take advantage of these detours rather than be hobbled or broken by them in order to continue the YCISG heritage. With the advent of Covid, we were at a make-or-break stage. We knew that we had to make changes, or the Group might go on a long hiatus or possibly disband.

We chose to honor our founders by again leading the pack – taking the proverbial bull by the horns. We opened up our membership to qualified, non-tri-state-area professionals and transitioned our meetings to virtual and then hybrid formats. We actually increased the size and quality of the Group and broadened its professional base.

We are now entering upon another new phase by sharing our members’ knowledge, articles and wisdom with the world at large through our new website. The Group will still remain exclusive, but our work will now be published and our assistance available to those outside of the YCISG. By doing this, we will again honor our founders.

And so, today, our current membership looks forward to writing the next chapter in the illustrious history of the Yale Club Insurance Study Group.