WELCOME to December, a most festive time of year! As in the past, we set aside our typical insurance analysis this month for fun and frivolity at the expense of our favorite business. So grab a cup of eggnog, and let's check out the upcoming underwriting blockbusters. In other words, it's again time for insurance movie reviews!

oReturn of the Ring! At long last the famed insurance trilogy draws to a spellbinding finale. As viewers of previous installments will recall, the adventure began many years ago with Laird of the Rings, wherein Rick Laird, intrepid VP of inland marine lines at Habit Insurance Co., sets off to properly insure a diamond solitaire belonging to one Thomasina Bombadill. But what begins as a simple application review turns dark, as the Ring seems to take on a life of its own.

Muttering "sometimes this job can be Mordor," Rick finds himself drawn into a seemingly endless quest, encountering archaic underwriting rules, conflicting appraisals and clueless carrier bureaucrats. Finally, after overcoming these and other perils, Rick stands at the precipice of recovery. With success hanging in the balance, he rallies his motley group of underwriter, adjuster and actuary trainees with a spell-binding speech that would have done the Gipper proud:

"Underwriters, see me. Adjusters, feel me. Actuaries, touch me. Some day the hearts and minds of insurance folks may fail-but it will not be this day! Some day all underwriting rules now considered sacred, like credit scoring, may be declared illegal-but it will not be this day! Someday an appeals court may ponder why discharge of a nuclear weapon, even if accidental, will be deemed war-like-but it will not be this day! This day we stand as one! This day we fight the good fight! This day all insurance folk look evil in the eye and cry "Drat the wear and tear, gradual deterioration or inherent vice-full coverage ahead!"