No one explained to me when I grew up in a rented apartment why I might need renter's insurance (my family had it!), or the difference between standard homeowners and condo and co-op coverage. Or why a hurricane is covered but not a flood. Or why my couch might be covered, but not my baseball card collection.

One of the key questions I was asked during the interview was about the most common mistakes I see people make when buying insurance. My answer was that most people don't have the foggiest idea what they are getting into. Hardly anyone reads their policies, and if they do, they don't understand most of it. Most would fail a simple test of what is and is not covered.

No wonder most of the general population believes the worst, assuming the industry is out to cheat them. Uninformed people are easily confused, often frustrated, and inevitably angry. And that anger plays itself out in state legislatures and insurance departments, as well as in Congress.

The Insurance Information Institute does a fine job being there when people need answers to basic questions. (Indeed, their capable people might have been better suited to pass along the Insurance 101 information I was asked to provide today. ) But the industry cannot afford to wait for people to come to them with questions. By then, it's often too late.

Instead, insurers should launch an initiative (perhaps coordinated by the Institute) to make a basic lecture on insurance part of every high school kid's standard education. (In fact, it wouldn't hurt to teach them about credit cards, mortgages, taxes and other unpleasant facts of adult life, either.) Perhaps then the next generation will be at least somewhat more informed, and better prepared, to deal with the exposures they will face.

What do you folks think?