The leading magazine in the business is owned by Crain Communications,
"Business Insurance," which has a readership of about 130,000 people:
http://www.businessinsurance.com/
National Underwriter Company publishes a wide range of books and
magazines, particularly in specialty areas of the insurance business
(claims, property & casualty, life & financial):
http://www.nationalunderwriter.com/
The Independent Agents & Brokers of America provide a range of
information on working as an independent agent, including an
interesting "Best Practices" study:
www.independentagent.com/
http://www.reaganconsulting.com/research/BP2002/GatewayUpdate/gateway.html
And you're probably familiar with AM Best, which rates insurance
companies and provides news on different types of products for the
industry:
http://www.ambest.com/
An underwriter's complete set of insurance-related links, from jokes
to professional organizations:
http://www.ultimateinsurancelinks.com/
And given the types of financial issues that you'll be treating, don't
forget the Certified Financial Planners, which has a number of
publications. Their home page:
http://www.cfp-board.org/
Now, as for conferences and seminars, you have a wealth to choose
from. The Business Insurance page keeps a calendar going forward for
more than a year on its "Datebook" page. You can pick and choose from
areas of specialty:
http://www.businessinsurance.com/cgi-bin/calendar.pl
Picking books to read is very difficult, as personal interest counts
as much as topics. Some good sources for leading books include:
1. Books for Business, which keeps a best-seller list for different
categories, including finance and investment:
http://www.booksforbusiness.com/bestsellersstage.shtml
2. National Underwriter Company's online store has dozens of
publications in each of the topic areas that you've outlined:
http://www.nationalunderwriter.com/nucatalog/
3. Professional organizations all have journals and books within their
areas of specialty. The American Risk & Insurance Association, which
covers a broad area of the industry with more academic research is a
good example. It runs an annual conference that's well-respected;
publishes books; and has two journals, "Risk Management and Insurance
Review" and "Journal of Risk and Insurance":
http://www.aria.org/journals.htm
Good luck getting up to speed -- luckily there's lots of material
available on the web to help!
Google search strategy:
Use Google to find "Business Insurance" -- select "Similar pages"
business + insurance
"business bestsellers" + books
Omnivorous-GA |
