Thursday, October 02, 2008
In memory of Edward K. Kane, 79, a lawyer who gave back
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
In Edward K. Kane, corporate lawyer, advocate of life insurance policyholder rights and a theorist of the mutuality principle in insurance, died on Sunday September 21 2008, at the age of 79, after a brief illness. A local resident, to the readers of this page he was known as the Old Curmudgeon (OC), a stern conservative commentator of Manichaean black and white opinions.
Even among his friends, few knew that this son of a working class family in Yonkers, then a carpet shop town, had started his career in the building trades a plumber’s assistant, and became the shop stewart of a plumbers’ apprentices’ union local. But he had a congenital arm problem that made physical labor difficult. Meanwhile, main local employers, the carpet mills, were fleeing Yonkers. So, the family rallied with help, and was able to enter Manhattan College, graduating in 1951.
He started work as a claims approver at Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, then at 50 Union Square, now the L Hotel, in off-hours overcoming his physical handicap by playing basketball (his semipro group played in a beer-keg league, where teams sometimes hired Celtics pros for $20, to win crucial games), pitching slow-ball softball, and hitting golf balls cross-handedly in match games. But his real métier was logic, and arguing at work and in bars with friends he decided on a law career, entering the Fordham Law Sthool at night, graduating at the top in three years. He joined the legal staff at Guardian, and from Claims progressed to Policy Services, helping install an advanced computerized administration system. When the Corporate Counsel office became available he accepted it.
Meanwhile, Guardian Life in 1963 acquired a new neighbor, soon to be the legendary Max’s Kansas City, an artists bar and restaurant, named by Joel Oppenheimer,(1930-88), a poet of the Black Mountain school tradition and Ed’s highschool friend. Ed became an after-work habitué, exchanging drinks and supplying free legal advice about loft conversions and family problems to Pop artists and writers, such as Dawson Fielding (1930-2002), and Andy Warkol’s superstars, As the scene shifted to rock, Ed stopped patronizing MKC and played more golf. The OC was always a tough golf competitor, playing the psychological game better than anyone else. He was a member of the Board of the venerable St. Andrews Club in Westchester, and was buried wearing their red colors.
Determination , denial of obstacles, logic, talent and straight talk carried Ed Kane to the Board of Directors of Guardian and a dozen related companies and industry organizations, where he asserted the rights of policyholders and advised against venturesome enterprises. In life insurance, the straight flat-premium ordinary life policies pay a higher that current claims-determined premiums in early years, called reserves, which are invested to subsidize the higher claims in later years. The above is governed by strict NY state insurance laws. T his does not succeed in all environments, which accounts for AIG putting at risk the reserves of all their insurance coverages by going broke with insuring swaps of sub-prime real estate bonds, and endangeting the world’s economy.
Being a bachelor, Ed Kane devoted a lot of effort an money to his Guardian fanily, supporting, with hundreds and thousands of dollars, an employee Welfare Trust, established long ago (Guardian Life dates back to 1860, and has always had the reputation of being policyholder-minded and paternalistic). The fund was renamed the Edward Kane Guardian Life WelfareTrust in 2005, when he retired and turned to consulting. In family life, Ed Kane gave back freely for the help received, in scholarships and home-financing. He was on the boards of several charities, helping with both funds and caveats. Protection of policyholder and beneficiary funds against the lures of investing in risk- related opportunities has been the thrust of his advice.. In organizations of the insurance industry, he was a strong advocacate of the mutual, policyholder-owned company, where all earnings are returned to the premium-payer, without having to pay dividends to stockholders.
Sadly, due to financial turmoils, only four strong life insurers have retained their mutual status. Such stalwarts a Metropolitan., Pridential and Equitable have sold their future earnings for additional capital provided by stockholders, with limited success in insurance. It is indeed sad that we have to take the opportunity of the death of a conscience-driven conservative investment advisor to issue warnings about all the opportunists who have ruined our and the world’s economies by having counsciously driven a modest population-growth motivated economy into a hellhole, for which generations of our children will pay, by reduced living standards. America, and the world , has been ruined by smartass profiteers, who should be punished by a lot worse than the loss of their employment umbrella benefiting the economy, As to saving the economy,Ed Kane’s advice is no longer available.
In Edward K. Kane, corporate lawyer, advocate of life insurance policyholder rights and a theorist of the mutuality principle in insurance, died on Sunday September 21 2008, at the age of 79, after a brief illness. A local resident, to the readers of this page he was known as the Old Curmudgeon (OC), a stern conservative commentator of Manichaean black and white opinions.
Even among his friends, few knew that this son of a working class family in Yonkers, then a carpet shop town, had started his career in the building trades a plumber’s assistant, and became the shop stewart of a plumbers’ apprentices’ union local. But he had a congenital arm problem that made physical labor difficult. Meanwhile, main local employers, the carpet mills, were fleeing Yonkers. So, the family rallied with help, and was able to enter Manhattan College, graduating in 1951.
He started work as a claims approver at Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, then at 50 Union Square, now the L Hotel, in off-hours overcoming his physical handicap by playing basketball (his semipro group played in a beer-keg league, where teams sometimes hired Celtics pros for $20, to win crucial games), pitching slow-ball softball, and hitting golf balls cross-handedly in match games. But his real métier was logic, and arguing at work and in bars with friends he decided on a law career, entering the Fordham Law Sthool at night, graduating at the top in three years. He joined the legal staff at Guardian, and from Claims progressed to Policy Services, helping install an advanced computerized administration system. When the Corporate Counsel office became available he accepted it.
Meanwhile, Guardian Life in 1963 acquired a new neighbor, soon to be the legendary Max’s Kansas City, an artists bar and restaurant, named by Joel Oppenheimer,(1930-88), a poet of the Black Mountain school tradition and Ed’s highschool friend. Ed became an after-work habitué, exchanging drinks and supplying free legal advice about loft conversions and family problems to Pop artists and writers, such as Dawson Fielding (1930-2002), and Andy Warkol’s superstars, As the scene shifted to rock, Ed stopped patronizing MKC and played more golf. The OC was always a tough golf competitor, playing the psychological game better than anyone else. He was a member of the Board of the venerable St. Andrews Club in Westchester, and was buried wearing their red colors.
Determination , denial of obstacles, logic, talent and straight talk carried Ed Kane to the Board of Directors of Guardian and a dozen related companies and industry organizations, where he asserted the rights of policyholders and advised against venturesome enterprises. In life insurance, the straight flat-premium ordinary life policies pay a higher that current claims-determined premiums in early years, called reserves, which are invested to subsidize the higher claims in later years. The above is governed by strict NY state insurance laws. T his does not succeed in all environments, which accounts for AIG putting at risk the reserves of all their insurance coverages by going broke with insuring swaps of sub-prime real estate bonds, and endangeting the world’s economy.
Being a bachelor, Ed Kane devoted a lot of effort an money to his Guardian fanily, supporting, with hundreds and thousands of dollars, an employee Welfare Trust, established long ago (Guardian Life dates back to 1860, and has always had the reputation of being policyholder-minded and paternalistic). The fund was renamed the Edward Kane Guardian Life WelfareTrust in 2005, when he retired and turned to consulting. In family life, Ed Kane gave back freely for the help received, in scholarships and home-financing. He was on the boards of several charities, helping with both funds and caveats. Protection of policyholder and beneficiary funds against the lures of investing in risk- related opportunities has been the thrust of his advice.. In organizations of the insurance industry, he was a strong advocacate of the mutual, policyholder-owned company, where all earnings are returned to the premium-payer, without having to pay dividends to stockholders.
Sadly, due to financial turmoils, only four strong life insurers have retained their mutual status. Such stalwarts a Metropolitan., Pridential and Equitable have sold their future earnings for additional capital provided by stockholders, with limited success in insurance. It is indeed sad that we have to take the opportunity of the death of a conscience-driven conservative investment advisor to issue warnings about all the opportunists who have ruined our and the world’s economies by having counsciously driven a modest population-growth motivated economy into a hellhole, for which generations of our children will pay, by reduced living standards. America, and the world , has been ruined by smartass profiteers, who should be punished by a lot worse than the loss of their employment umbrella benefiting the economy, As to saving the economy,Ed Kane’s advice is no longer available.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 3:46 AM 
