One of the very first things you learn when you enter the insurance industry and begin basic industry training is that the insurance business is, and has been since its inception, characterized as a business of “Utmost Good Faith”.  This premise for all dealings within the industry is it’s “Imperative Necessity”.  This means that the duty of utmost good faith goes beyond the traditional good faith and fair dealing implicit in every contract and is the practical opposite of the principle of many transactions: “Caveat Emptor” Latin for “let the buyer beware”.  I love this aspect of my industry and have been proud to operate within this “imperative necessity”.

Unfortunately, some within our industry were either were poorly trained in this very basic axiom or have come from another industry where this imperative necessity was apparently not operable.  Of course, there are some that are simple dishonest on either side of a particular transaction be it buying or selling.  This too, has a long history, but fortunately a very narrow corridor within the industry and is, by far, the exception and not the rule.

I also credit this “imperative necessity” within our industry for weathering the financial debacle of 2008 practically unscathed with the few exceptions that had allowed “risk” to become something to be insured rather than measurable perils that can be insured againist.