BIG BILL IS EVERYWHERE - Microsoft and Dalbar (the financial services research firm) have joined to create MS-Dalbar. The company will help consumers find financial planners who meet their profile. Planners will pay $750 per year to be part of the MS-Dalbar database (http://www.dalbar.com/web_referral.htm or the Microsoft site at http://www.therightadvisor.com). Of interest here is that both Microsoft and the well-respected research firm see a future for one-on-one relationships...not everyone will "do it themselves" on the Net. Investment News reports that about 3,000 advisors have already signed up and enrollment is expected to reach 5,000 by year end.

CONTINUING THE TREND - Following the lead of the Nasdaq and NYSE, the Chicago Board of Trade's directors have voted to consider a change to a publicly-traded entity. Meanwhile, the SEC is cautioning U.S. stock exchanges to remember their "self-policing duties as they consider going public." In a letter to exchange heads, SEC chairman Arthur Levitt said that the exchanges must "ensure that the self-regulatory role will continue to be zealous, adequately funded and serve the public interest."

THE NEXT CONVERGENCE WAVE? - In his debut editorial as editor-in- chief of Life Insurance Selling, George Williams (whose background is P&C) points out some of the overlap in the P&C and life sides of our industry. With NALU and the PIA holding talks "to identify areas in which it might be in their members' interest to cooperate," who knows what's next? (But it's probably not agreement on the subject of estate taxes, as you'll see in the Marketing/Tax section.)

MAKE OR BREAK DATE - The SEC has established November 15 as the deadline for brokerages to complete their Y2K preparedness or risk being shut down. Any firms unable to fix their computer systems will then be forced to cease operations by December 1.

INSWEB - The Nasdaq began offering a 15% share of the insurance e-commerce giant, InsWeb, at $17 per share, which rose rapidly to $35-1/2 per share. InsWeb's revenue for the first six months of 1999 was $8.4 million (nearly double that for all of 1998). Interestingly, automobile insurance accounted for 84% of all revenue.

Suppose you decide to call an old college buddy across the country on New Year's Eve, just prior to January 1, 2000. You talk for 20 minutes and enjoy together the ringing in of the new century. You're using that great long distance service you have that costs just ten cents a minute and would expect the call to cost you a couple of dollars. Imagine your surprise, however, when you receive a bill for $5,256,000...the computer thinks you talked for a hundred years!

"BLITZ KREIG" - German insurance giant Allianz is apparently eyeing Britain's Royal & Sun Alliance as a takeover prospect. A Royal & Sun spokesperson described it as a "rumour." Allianz also announced it is looking for a U.S. partner to help it develop its asset management business in the U.S.

NAILBA-ACORD AGREEMENT - The National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA) and ACORD (a non-profit standards developer for the insurance industry) have entered into a strategic partnership. According to Merrill Bent, the agreement "will advance the setting of life insurance data transmission, programming and data definitions." Kudos to both parties for their alliance, but particularly to NAILBA. This association has rapidly become one of the most respected and effective associations in the industry.

MORE CONSOLIDATION - The largest U.S. bank and thrift industry trade groups - The American Bankers Association and America's Community Bankers - have agreed to start designing a new, unified banking trade association that could come into being in the first half of 2000. Reason: to better deal with the opportunities and challenges their members would face in a deregulated environment. The question has to be asked whether the various life insurance trade groups wouldn't better serve their constituencies by speaking with a more unified voice.

FINANCIAL PLANNING ASSOCIATION (FPA) - This will be the name of the new organization created by the merger of the IACFP and the IAFP. The name is simple, descriptive and direct. A big loser in the merger will be Financial Planning magazine. Currently the official magazine of the IAFP, Financial Planning magazine will lose that status in the new organization to the Journal of Financial Planning. As a result, Investment News reports that Financial Planning magazine will lose a "guaranteed readership that now accounts for 60% of its paid circulation."

So, here are the final acronyms for the major industry associations: CFP and IAFP are now FPA, NALU will be NAIFA and the American Society of CLU/ChFC is now the Society of Financial Service Professionals (SFSP?).

SAD STORY - It's being reported that 20 states, led by the Florida Department of Banking and Finance, are "cracking down on an estimated 1,000 insurance agents coast-to-coast over the sale of worthless promissory notes that may have cost mainly aging investors as much as $100 million over the past two years," as reported in Investment News. These agents are reportedly part of a nationwide scam designed to bilk senior citizens out of their retirement savings by selling them worthless promissory notes purported to be secured by insurance companies and as safe as a bank account or CD.

NEW STOCK TRADING SYSTEM - Fidelity Investments, Schwab, Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette, and Spear, Leads and Kellogg announced plans to pool their technology to create an electronic stock trading system that will challenge the Nasdaq and other exchanges. The new company, which is predicted to have a substantial customer "critical mass," is expected to be up and running by the end of the year.

MORE ON NALU AND PFP - Jay Morris at NALU brings us this insight into the PFP designation. First, it is not a standalone designation, but rather a certificate program administered by UCLA Extension that meets the educational requirements as established by the CFP Board of Standards for students pursuing the CFP designation. As such, the PFP is not an NALU designation as we reported, although NALU is supporting the program.

WATCH WHAT YOU SAY - A day after losing a $120 million verdict, Aetna Chairman Richard Huber was quoted as saying that the cash award was the work of a "skillful ambulance-chasing lawyer, a politically motivated judge and a weeping widow." Instead of chasing ambulances, the lawyer, Michael Midart, is now chasing Mr. Huber, having filed suit claiming that Mr. Huber made "false, malicious and vindictive" statements.