I'm actually surprised I'm the first one who mentioned it. People are very focused on the Zenefits as startup issue, rather than focusing on "What if it was say one of AIG's largest franchisees (or insert some conglomerate of insurance brokers, especially as famous as AIG) who was doing this." Once framed this way, it becomes much more obvious that the startup issue and how it relates to growth is a different set of issues and framing than "cheating on tests in insurance brokering/lacking proper insurance brokers doing the sales/place of regulation in insurance."
This especially becomes true when if you turn on the tv and hear the occasional pitch about loans against life insurance policies, or question too deeply why AIG was even betting in the subprime mortgage market and became systemic risk if they are an insurer.
It must mean that insurance itself is a kind of financial instrument, or cash flow, or something where you can create exchanges off of it in its own way(1). Which means there is fiduciary duty of some sort when the initial underwriting for the insurance is written.
This is going to be a headache for anyone who bought one of those policies and/or underwrote one.
(1)Technically speaking, options, futures, and forwards all started out as insurance contracts, some dating back as far as before Hammarabuai's code, so insurance contracts today must be some remainder of something special, I suppose.
I'm actually surprised I'm the first one who mentioned it. People are very focused on the Zenefits as startup issue, rather than focusing on "What if it was say one of AIG's largest franchisees (or insert some conglomerate of insurance brokers, especially as famous as AIG) who was doing this." Once framed this way, it becomes much more obvious that the startup issue and how it relates to growth is a different set of issues and framing than "cheating on tests in insurance brokering/lacking proper insurance brokers doing the sales/place of regulation in insurance."
This especially becomes true when if you turn on the tv and hear the occasional pitch about loans against life insurance policies, or question too deeply why AIG was even betting in the subprime mortgage market and became systemic risk if they are an insurer.
It must mean that insurance itself is a kind of financial instrument, or cash flow, or something where you can create exchanges off of it in its own way(1). Which means there is fiduciary duty of some sort when the initial underwriting for the insurance is written.
This is going to be a headache for anyone who bought one of those policies and/or underwrote one.
(1)Technically speaking, options, futures, and forwards all started out as insurance contracts, some dating back as far as before Hammarabuai's code, so insurance contracts today must be some remainder of something special, I suppose.