Education

Yale Club Insurance Study Group, The Oldest Continuously Meeting Insurance Study Group in North America

If you are a professional in the life insurance industry, especially someone who is a broker, agent, or producer, you cringe at the old stereotype of the brightly dressed insurance peddler going door-to-door representing a fly-by-night insurance company. If you’re old enough, you recognize this as a comedic device in such TV shows as The Honeymooners, WKRP in Cincinnati, and, to some degree, Father Knows Best. 

There’s a reason for this: the insurance business has been around for centuries, but it wasn’t until a 1944 Supreme Court ruling that the insurance industry really began to get its act together. 

Before that time, the Ponzi schemes, fly-by-night operators, and other chicanery that made the industry lampoonable were based in fact. There were many good operators, but there were also bad operators who severely damaged the industry’s reputation. With its ruling in the 1944 case South-Eastern Underwriters vs. the United States, it was determined that the insurance industry is subject to regulation by the United States Congress under the Commerce Clause because trade in this industry crosses state lines. 

It was before this ruling that the Yale Club Insurance Study Group commenced its formal inception as a group. Our purpose is to bring together leading industry thinkers to create best practices, study regulations, and to maintain the professionalism of the life insurance business. The timing of this group’s founders was impeccable! In the post-war years, the life insurance industry grew significantly as American wealth expanded. With life insurance penetration that at one point reached more than 60 percent of the American public, it is important to have thought leaders helping to shape the industry in a professional, responsible direction. 

We acknowledge that there will always be jokers in this industry, just as there are in the legal profession (some of our members are serious lawyers), capital markets (some of our members worked as credible stockbrokers), and other industries that have had their share of ne’er do well actors. Our role has been and continues to be that of a group that stands in contrast to those people and to be the leaders in this industry for people to look to for guidance. 

We created this Education space to provide some guidance, our best practices, and our insights for people in the industry who may not rise to the level of thought leaders but still wish to emulate the ideals that we embrace and advocate.