Just this morning I heard two comments about the value of client bases. One was from a commentator who told a broker that whatever he paid for a client base last year - the value today was ‘half'.

When Bill Clinton lost control of the legislature in 1994 he went on to success due to a policy called ‘traingulation' - the ability to win back the public at the expense of the Republican House.

Recently the president of Happy Life Insurance Limited (of China) told me about how to harvest wild Chinese Gooseberries (otherwise known as Kiwifruit) with a stone or stick in their native province. As he did so I got a chance to reflect on the differences between the life insurance business in New Zealand and China and how that provides some clues to where this business is headed in the next decade.

It is proverbial that political careers always end in failure. Does that have to apply to advisers? Well, not as dramatically as losing an election, obviously. But over the next few years the industry is set to lose a number of advisers - anything between 10% and 40% depending on a number of heroic assumptions.

Quotation software has to be one of the most annoying things for an insurance adviser.

Sincere apologies, but as with so many things I have discovered over the past 10 years or so that I was wrong about something. A long time ago, when I'd answer the phone and prepare quotes for insurance brokers all day long, I still remember doing quotes for a broker who I thought, cordially, was insane.

When looking at any investment, it pays to consider risk. But curiously, some people don't think so.

Well, bank staff if Finsec are to be believed. Finsec recently did a survey of its members and found that they don't like selling insurance much.

People are funny about what they claim for. I recently did some digging into disability statistics and found some startling trends.

The change in a number of insurers premium rates this last week has been a window on how they view the market. Most of all, into whether or not they think price matters, or perhaps, how much they think it matters to them.

It's a lazy assumption that when a "middleman" is getting a commission then the result will be a more expensive premium.

Following loss of a loved one is a good time for most professional sales people to stay away from the bereaved family. Except for the life insurance salesman, who is there to deliver.

A friend of mine recently sent her policy into BigCo for a change of policy owner. Her experience tells us just how far life insurers - even one that is arguably amongst the best - have to come to measure up to the standards we see in banking. I can't tell you how much it hurts to say that, as banks haven't exactly covered themselves in glory recently.

When incomes are shrinking clients with indemnity policies may quickly find that their income protection cover is miles above their pre-disability earnings.

I remember the first time I heard a real, true to life claims story... there I was, dreading one of those awful staff meetings at one of my early jobs and we were asked for examples of how life insurance worked.

There are many changes afoot in our industry, most of which will land - after so many years in the making - this year. However, spare a thought for the insurance broker in the US.