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Originally Posted by highthief
At the end of the day, we are heading into a very rough economic time. If I hear one of my salespeople whining about not getting to play a freebie round of golf or go to Bahamas this year on the company ticket, while others in the firm are holding their breath over a possible pink slip, I'll deck said salesperson myself.
AIG should have cancelled the event so that it stayed out of the media and told its agents to shut up for now.
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[sigh] The salesfolks don't work for AIG. They are independent agents. They sell insurance for many companies other than AIG.
And one of the best business truisms I can give you is that a company that cuts back on their sales folks is doomed. Sales is what generates revenue, period.
-----Added 9/10/2008 at 09 : 45 : 35-----
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Originally Posted by Tully Mars
Well if it was and it is why did the tax payers have to loan them over 100 billion in what amounts to a bail out? Will we get that back? If so will it be with interest?
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Because, by law, the parent can't take money out of the subsidiaries. That's the case with all insurance companies and it's designed to make sure that all assets used to pay claims are available. Most of the other non-insurance entities don't have the ability to generate the kind of cash that was necessary to solve the problem in time.
Until today, with the new loan, the conventional wisdom in the industry was that as the various assets are sold off, they will generate enough revenue to pay off the initial loan with interest. With the new loan, I don't know enough about how it's going to work and change the deal to tell you if that will still be the case. I think it will, but I need to see the numbers.
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Please, please do. I can't make head nor tails of most of this bail out. No, not just the AIG part. All I know is now my portion of the national debt just damn near doubled. I pay my bills and I pay my taxes. It rubs me wrong to think I'm bailing out companies who are sending folks to the Ritz Spa and or the freaking Super Bowl. Not to mention sending CEO and CFO out the door with millions. Why am I paying for this?
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Well, I'm not so sure about the rest of the bailout since I don't know enough about it. But AIG is spending money to make money. It is really that simple. Do I think that there will be more incentive trips, no, probably not. But I think that AIG sales are going to suffer slightly for that lack. And in a time where they're going to be suffering already because of the bailout. Many of my clients are actively seeking other options. I talked with the president of Scottsdale Insurance Co. this evening about this, and he sees the same thing going on and lots more opportunities for them. That said, no company sees as much stuff as AIG and they serve a very valuable role in the marketplace.