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"The prestige now enjoyed by life underwriters did not come about by accident, nor is it likely to continue by accident. Without the NALU and its statesman-like approach to problems affecting the business and its policyholders it would be only too possible that life underwriters may again find themselves in such a sorry mess they will be more scorned than respected by the public they seek so diligently to serve."

—United States Review, April 2, 1949

ADVERSITY FOSTERS ALLIANCES. The Depression, New Deal legislation, and World War II had taught the various segments of the life insurance business new ways of working together. United they had established the Institute of Life Insurance, enabling all branches of the industry to speak with one voice. Together they had forged an Agency Practices Agreement to assure uniformly high business standards in the marketplace, and instituted a procedure for recognizing those who rendered consistent, quality service to their clients. Now they were about to launch a new educational program for raising the level of salesmanship throughout the field force. As the NALU's Veterans' Affairs program had demonstrated, the business was even learning to deal with the new bully on the block, the federal government. More often than not, the initiative for these cooperative ventures had come from the NALU.

At the 41st annual meeting of the American Life Convention, in October 1946, the NALU's new president, Philip B. Hobbs of Chicago, reminded the company presidents of how well they had all been served by working together as an industry team. He reviewed four instances of cooperative effort involving the NALU, the American Life Convention and the Association of Life Presidents (which had recently changed its name to the Life Insurance Association of America):

  • Helping the government develop a pattern for selling war bonds to individuals, rather than to commercial bank;
  • Providing an industry manpower study to the government to ensure that sufficient field and home office personnel were available for the industry "to carry on for the duration of the war";
  • Forming the Joint Committee of Field Cooperation to provide a pooling of sales ideas, thus enabling agents "to continue to do the proper job for the American insuring public even though we were under wartime restrictions and operating with greatly reduced personnel"; and
  • Preparing an institutional statement for the House Ways and Means committee that influenced post-war legislation on Social Security.[i]

Foreword by Alan Press, 1988-1989 NALU President

Preface by Jack E. Bobo, 1989 NALU Executive Vice President

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Laying the Foundation—A Meeting at the Parker House

Leading Figures—Ransom, Carpenter, Blodgett and Plummer

Conditions Leading to the Foundation of the NALU

Rise of Modern Life Insurance and the General Agency System

Issues and Accomplishments of the First 15 Years

Chapter 2

In the Wake of the Armstrong Investigation

A Royal Commission Investigates Life Insurance Operations in Canada

A Period of Growth and Visibility for the NALU Under Strong Leadership

The NALU Plays a Leading Role in Insurance Education

The NALU During World War I

Chapter 3

The Post-War Decade

The NALU's Extension of Activity

The Agents Move for Recognition

Chapter 4

The Depression and Aftermath

Annual Conventions and Midyear Meetings

The NALU Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary

Chapter 5

The Agents Earn Their Wings

World War II

The NALU Joins the Industry in Legislative Battles

The NALU Establishes the National Quality Award

Chapter 6

Controversies and Schisms (1946-1956)

The Foundation of LUTC

The Nola Patterson Affair

GAMC Formally Organized

Chapter 7

The NALU Goes to Washington

Dispute Over Minimum Deposit Insurance Plans

GAMC Stages First LAMP Meeting

The NALU Celebrates Its Diamond Jubilee Year

The NALU Increases Political Activity

U.S. Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee Investigate Life Insurance

The NALU Responds to Consumerist Activism

Chapter 8

The NALU Reaches the Century Mark

FTC Releases a Study Critical of the Insurance Industry

Formation of the Women Life Underwriters Conference

Drop in Local Membership

The NALU Issues Statements on AIDS

The NALU Combats a New Wave of Attacks

The NALU Celebrates a Century of Service

Open Book

Book Marks


[i] LAN, November 1946, p. 257.

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