Ethics in the Insurance Industry Monograph Published by Ethics Institute
"Ethics in the Insurance Industry: A Case Study Approach," a monograph containing ethics-related scenarios, was just published by the Insurance Institute for Applied Ethics, a division of the American Institute for CPCU/Insurance Institute of America. It was published as part of Ethics Awareness Month 2000, a nationwide educational event.
The monograph contains a series of case studies or scenarios that describe a situation that an insurance practitioner might face. It then lists several questions relating to the possible ethical implications of the situation. In another section of the monograph, the authors give suggested answers to the questions and raise ethical points to consider about each situation.
The monograph contains case studies relating to agents, claims adjusters, underwriters, field sales managers, company managers, and customers.
Authors of the monograph are David Brownell, CLU, ChFC, AIM, FLMI, and Stephen Herald. Brownell is recently retired from State Farm Insurance Companies, Bloomington, Ill., where he served as senior staff assistant in the Agency Education Design Unit. Herald is Dean of Humanities, Fine Arts, and Human Services at Heartland Community College, also in Bloomington.
In the introduction to the monograph, Brownell and Herald wrote, "In recent years, experts in the field of ethics have pointed out that ethics is more than theories about moral laws…. Ethics is really about actioni.e., what people do.
"The extent to which what we do conforms to what we claim as our ethical principles determines our level of credibility with the people we deal with…. The case-study approach enables us to…create a laboratory in which we can consider real life situations and the [ethical] issues they pose for us," they continued.
"Ethics in the Insurance Industry: A Case Study Approach" is 100 pages long and costs $10 (which includes shipping and handling). Order it from the Institutes by calling Katherine Myers at (610) 644-2100, ext. 7851, faxing her at (610) 644-7629, or e-mailing her at myers@cpcuiia.org.
The Insurance Institute for Applied Ethics was established as a division of the Institutes in 1995 to heighten awareness of the ethical implications involved in making business decisions and to identify and fund practical, applied ethics research.