The billion dollar bookies

Not just an expose of the dirty linen of the mutual insurance industry but a public call to arms. First Shulman's lengthy catalogue of abuses by the Big Five (the Pru, Metropolitan, Equitable, John Hancock, New York Life)--abuses which include raking off unnecessary surpluses, padded executive benefit programs, the deliberate withholding of dividends from policyholders, monopolistic expansion at the expense of efficiency, nepotism, bribery and a general history distinguished by ""greed, power, deceit and swindling for personal gain."" Then Shulman's plan for reform. Mutual insurance companies, he informs us, are public trusts whose directors may, by law, be nominated by the policyholders. The Shulman slate is headed up by Ralph Nader and also includes Philip Hart, Sylvia Porter, and the only two honest state insurance commissioners in the country. Appended to the back of the book is a page of tear-out postcards for you and your committed friends who want to get behind an idea whose time may have come. What Shulman has to say in his outraged attack is only too true. Consumer activists have a new cause here, and what's even better, the advice on dividends can save even the most timid, can't-be-bothered suckers hard, cold cash on their life insurance policies.