Our industry has often been criticized for not being on the cutting edge when it comes to technology. In fact, I seem to recall the word Amish being used once to characterize our industry (although that story is arguably apocryphal). This is probably an unfair accusation. Without insurance companies, we would not have been blessed with so many varieties of big iron data crunchers in the 1950s. However, in the PC and the Internet eras we have lagged behind related industries.

Securities

The securities industry embraced technology in the 1970s and banking climbed on the bandwagon in the 80s. Insurance didnt catch on until the mid-90s. There are valid reasons for this, though we really arent a bunch of Luddites. If you recall the state of the securities trade in the first half of the 20th century you will note that there were many small, regional exchanges. Inexpensive, reliable communication was not available so most major cities had their own stock exchanges where the affluent locals could trade securities.