National Underwriter - December 19, 2011

To e-mail any staff member, use firstinitialastname@sbmedia.com, unless otherwise specified. (Example – to write John Smith, his e-mail is jsmith@sbmedia.com.) National Under writer

EDITORIAL HEADQUARTERS 33-41 Newark St., Hoboken, NJ 07030 (201) 526-1230, Fax (201) 526-1260 Web Site: PropertyCasualty360.com

EDITOR IN CHIEF/GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Bryant Rousseau

EXECUTIVE MANAGING EDITOR Shawn Moynihan

ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR/NU MAGAZINE Caroline McDonald

ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR/ONLINE NEWS Phil Gusman SENIOR EDITOR Markets Chad Hemenway

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Agent/Broker Mark E. Ruquet

SENIOR COPY EDITOR Kimberly Tallon COPY EDITOR Michael Stanley

WASHINGTON BUREAU

1301 Connecticut Ave. N. W., Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20036

Fax (202) 728-0510

WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF Arthur D. Postal (202) 370-4819

P&C GROUP PUBLISHER Christopher W. Luke (908) 859-0893

ADVERTISING SALES MI, IN, OH Christopher W. Luke (908) 859-0893

VA, DC, EAS T COAS T/BERMUDA Laurel A. Metz (770) 360-9676 MIDWEST/WEST COAST Betsy Norberg (913) 400-2601 MARKETPLACE/CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Jeremy Campbell (859) 692-2209

ADVERTISING BUSINESS DIRECTOR Sheila Hyland (859) 692-2152 ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Ashley A. Allmon (859) 692-2102 DIRECTOR OF MANUFACTURING Steve Johnston (859) 692-2116 DIRECTOR OF INTERACTIVE MEDIA Rob Flaherty (201) 526-2343

PRODUCTION & DESIGN DIREC TOR OF PRODUCTION Georgia A. Barry DESIGN DIRECTOR Donald R. Heyl

ART DIRECTOR Kelly Farrar

SUPERVISOR OF PRODUCTION Kimberly T. Plunkett SENIOR PRODUCTION TECHNICIAN Mark C. Joseph TECHNICIAN James L. Fugett

MARKETING P&C GROUP MARKETING DIRECTOR Andrea Shin MARKETING MANAGER Heather Burns

SENIOR AUDIENCE MARKE TING MANAGER Lynn Kruetzkamp

SUBSCRIPTIONS

P.O. Box 2157, Skokie, IL 60076

Customer Service Tel. (800) 458-1734

Fax: (847) 763-9587 • E-mail: propertyandcasualty@halldata.com

REPRINTS

For high-quality article reprints, including e-prints, contact: Keith Williams, PARS International Corp.

253 West 35th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10001 (212) 221-9595 ext. 319

E-mail: Keith. Williams@parsintl.com

PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL UNDERWRITER CO.,

5081 Olympic Boulevard, Erlanger, KY 41018-3184 (859) 692-2100 Fax: (859) 692-2246

A UNIT OF

INTERIM PRESIDENT AND CEO/COO/CFO Thomas M. Flynn

CTO David MacDonald EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT MEDIA DIVISION John Whelan

Top Stories & Honorable Mentions

THE END OF 2011 is upon us, which can only mean one thing: It’s time for NU to assemble its annual list of the Top 10 stories of the year. With such a high number of news events to consider as legitimate candidates, deciding on the final lineup was a daunting challenge.

While no actual fisticuffs broke out in the office, individual editors were lobbying hard for their favorites—and were able to make strong cases by pointing to the large number of articles we published throughout the year on the topics they felt deserved a place in the spotlight.

In the end—after re-reading every article in every issue and reflecting late into the night on which of these issues mattered most to our readers (no eggnog was harmed during these midnight-oil-burning sessions)—we have created a Top 10 list that we believe nails the trends that defined the year—and affected how everyone approached their work.

The list starts on page 12, and the year’s Top Story (little drummer boy, drum roll please) can be found on page 26 (if you were one of those kids who had to get an early peek at the presents). As with all our lists, we invite you to submit your own Top 10 list: Which industry events affected you the most this year?

Since we had to leave so many important stories off the list, I thought I’d dedicate this space to the Honorable Mention topics: Vital stories that had everyone talking and were close—darn close—to making the cut.

J Bond Insurance Bruises: Battered by the financial meltdown, 2011 was a rough year for bond insurers such as Ambac, which reported losses of just under $1 billion for the first nine months of 2011; and MBIA, which reported a nine-month net loss of $693 million. Ambac filed for bankruptcy at the end of last year, and MBIA has been embroiled in lawsuits with banks all year.

J D&O in Demand: Two lines of insurance
did make our Top 10 list—and D&O was
next in line, as Dodd-Frank, and greater
scrutiny of corporate governance in gen-
eral, helped make this coverage a hot
commodity.