You know times are tough when even the Tooth Fairy must come to terms with a deteriorating economy. The results of a tongue-in-cheek "study" by Securian Dental notes that the once frivolous fairy has gone frugal. Instead of doling out $2.09 per tooth as in 2008, the penny-pinching pixie now bestows an average of $1.88 under pillows, a decrease of 10 percent. (In related news, the Easter Bunny is downsizing basket sizes by 25 percent this year, much to the chagrin of children everywhere.)

Taking into account the current thriftiness of whimsical creatures and the parents who play them may not seem important. However, risk managers and their companies realize they need to keep an eye on the seemingly inconsequential in an effort to put prudence first and root out potential problems. The current economy seems to be sparing the P&C community the kind of devastation being wreaked on the financial sector or rather, leaders in our industry have proven to be responsible risk managers. It does, however, seem inevitable that indirect aftershocks from an imploding economy are only a matter of time in coming. What will be the signal, and will we be watching?

There are other questions to consider. For instance, will insurers reduce staff adjusters in an effort to control costs, asking others to squeeze blood from an increasingly dry stone? Will independents see a rise in quantity but a drop in quality as the unemployed look for opportunities, latching onto those get-rich-quick stories that seem to forever follow catastrophe adjusters? What, if any, will be the effects of insurers choosing to outsource their claims to third parties? Will there even be a large enough pool of qualified adjusters to which claims can be assigned?