Declarations

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Pollution

“It’s not like we have the luxury to move out of there. The pollution is still there.”

—Carla Hernandez, whose 4-year-old daughter is being treated at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles for a rare cancer. Such accounts of families and children living near transportation corridors and experiencing health problems helped prompt a conservation group and two environmental justice groups to file a lawsuit last month against two of the nation’s biggest rail road companies, Union Pacific Corp. and BNSF Railway Co. The lawsuit alleges problems at 17 rail yards across California, from Oakland to San Bernardino.

Ryan on Leadership

“Leadership is establishing a vision and getting others to buy into that vision, and when they buy into that vision, it’s establishing trust.”

—Patrick Ryan, chairman and CEO of Chicago, Ill.-based Ryan Specialty Group. Ryan, who led the U.S. bid to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, was speaking on a panel on developing leadership in the industry at the annual National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices (NAPSLO) conference in San Diego last month.

Meow

“People say that getting the Lloyd’s market to agree on things is like trying to herd cats. That’s very unfair-to cats.”

—Peter Montanaro, head of delegated authorities for Lloyd’s of London, on the challenge in the market of not just coming up with technology standards, but also getting the myriad companies, groups and individuals to buy in, and sign on, to those standards. Montanaro was speaking on a panel at the annual National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices (NAPSLO) conference in San Diego last month.

Moody’s Rules

“We expect the new rules to lead to greater consistency in financial reporting, to the benefit of investors and other users of financial statements.”

—Wallace Enman, Moody’s vice president and senior credit officer, who authored a report on new accounting rules intended to align U.S. insurers’ varied approaches to accounting for deferred acquisition costs.

Topics Excess Surplus Pollution

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