In early April the AAB crew joined independent agents and brokers in Washington, D.C. as they lobbied Capitol Hill with the Big I (see our Web site at www.agentandbroker.com for some video interviews from the conference).

The topic on everyone's minds was the Treasury Dept.'s proposal to create an optional federal charter for insurers. Since then, the plot has thickened with the introduction of a bill that would create an Office of Insurance Information within the Treasury Dept.With its main objectives being counsel and education, the OII concept seems benign–especially since our industry claims that legislators and the public don't understand our inner workings.But opponents point out that an OII could have the authority to preempt state insurance laws. And the undercurrent to many of these discussions is that any sort of federal insurance oversight could open the door for the repeal of McCarran-Ferguson.Of course, this could all be a moot point after a new administration is in the White House. And we're all waiting to see how that turns out (are the Democratic primaries over yet?).The Liberty/Safeco dealAs we were going to press, Liberty Mutual announced that it was acquiring Safeco Corp. in a $6.2 billion transaction. The deal is expected to finalize by third-quarter 2008, producing a combined agency force of 15,000 under the Liberty Mutual Agency Markets umbrella.The move provides Liberty with a strengthened presence on the West and East Coasts and bolsters an already strong surety business, making Liberty the second-largest surety business in the U.S. It also balances out Liberty's personal/commercial property and casualty business (71 percent of Liberty's business is commercial, while 66 percent of Safeco's is personal).We asked Liberty Mutual Agency Markets President Gary Gregg what the transaction will mean to the rank-and-file Liberty/Safeco agents. Gregg was optimistic that agents from both insurers stood to gain from the transaction because it would deliver "more products to more agents."What do you think? Let us know at our Liberty/Safeco poll and listen to a podcast of our discussion with Gregg at www.agentandbroker.com.Say what?We recently came across a story about Waste Management suing software giant SAP for more than $100 million, claiming that SAP's statements that its product was "mature" and "proven" were overstated.The case ties in with this month's cover feature on D&O coverage, which examines how the subprime meltdown and the current slack economy could generate more litigation against businesses and boards.Most corporate communicators are already slaves to their legal departments' guidelines on verboten words when describing products or services. While this plays hell with the writers, it's probably a sensible way to help avoid litigation. For agents and brokers, the challenge lies in cutting through the corporate clutter to give your customers the best advice–and to help them find ways to protect themselves against lawsuits like this.Thanks for your feedbackMany thanks to the AAB subscribers who responded to our recent readership survey. Here are a few highlights:o The majority of respondents-14.1 percent-were based in California, followed by Florida (8.8 percent), New Jersey (5.2 percent) and Georgia (4.7 percent).o Columnists Barry Zalma and Chris Amrhein topped the popularity charts. Forty percent of respondents gave Barry's column the highest ranking ("very helpful, always read"), while 50 percent gave top ranking to Chris's column.o Respondents gave the highest ranking to topics including cross-selling (40 percent), best practices (30.5 percent), insurer contracts (30 percent), agency success stories (28.2 percent), agency perpetuation (28.2 percent) and legislative and regulatory issues (28.2 percent).o More than 38 percent visit our Web site once or twice a month.o Respondents would like to see interactive Web seminars and panels (35.8 percent), social networking for agents (32.9 percent) and exclusive columnist blogs (30.0 percent) on the Web site.o Probably the most interesting parts of the survey are the open-ended questions dealing with how to improve AAB. Responses ranged from the flattering ("I find all items a must-read for me; AAB is the best of the best") to the pointed (my personal favorite: "You are better than the other garbage but this is not to be considered good.")Despite the disparity, a consistent message ran through most of the comments: Our readers enjoy and respect our publication, finding our articles useful, unbiased, informative and pertinent to their business.This doesn't mean there's no room for improvement. Readers offered up a wide range of suggestions, such as increasing our legislative and regulatory coverage, providing side-by-side policy comparisons on specific coverages, presenting more agency "success stories," and even including a section on agencies for sale and job openings.We've heard suggestions and are in the process of rolling out some exciting changes in the next several months. Stay tuned!