Officials of American International Group Inc. may have been just as surprised as everyone else in September, when Evan G. Greenberg resigned abruptly as AIG's president and chief operating officer.

Touted by his father, AIG Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Maurice R. Greenberg, as heir apparent to the top job, the younger Mr. Greenberg instead became the second of Maurice Greenberg's sons to walk away from succession. His older brother, Jeffrey Greenberg, quit unexpectedly in 1995, later becoming chairman and chief executive officer of Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc.

AIG reported simply that Evan Greenberg had resigned "to pursue other interests" and that his post would be filled by other AIG executives whose names were not provided. The insurer so far has not named a replacement.

While his brother had expressed a desire to pursue a career independent of AIG, Evan Greenberg's decision to resign went unexplained, leaving industry analysts and executives to speculate about what went wrong. Whatever the actual reason for Evan Greenberg's departure, the move has renewed questions about who will run AIG when the 75-year-old Maurice Greenberg decides to retire.

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Any individual who was involved in health care policy issues in Washington this year would have been hard pressed to miss Karen Ignagni, president of the American Assn. of Health Plans, the nation's largest managed care trade group.

Ms. Ignagni was a constant and very public critic of the many versions of patient protection legislation advanced by Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga. Ms. Ignagni's themes were consistent-at best, she said, the legislation was unnecessary; at worst, Ms. Ignagni said, the measure had the potential to significantly increase costs, leading more employers to drop coverage.

Lawmakers heard those points, and the Norwood bill failed to win congressional approval. Fresh from that success, Ms. Ignagni soon may be leading an organization even larger than the AAHP, which has 1,100 members. Currently, the AAHP and the Health Insurance Assn. of America, an insurer trade association with 294 members, are engaged in merger discussions. If the two groups do unite, Ms. Ignagni would be the front-runner to head the merged organization.

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Charles N. Jeffress proved that he is a man of his word-much to the chagrin of risk managers and insurers.

Mr. Jeffress, the assistant secretary of labor who heads the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said in 1999 that he intended to promulgate a final ergonomics standard by the end of 2000. On Nov. 14, he did just that.

The new rule, which takes effect a few days before the Clinton administration ends, applies to all but a handful of industries. It came after a decade of resistance from employers and several moves by Congress to withhold funds for its implementation. Critics repeatedly claimed that each successive ergonomics proposal floated by OSHA over the years was too rigid, not grounded in adequate science and too expensive to implement. Those same complaints greeted the final rule.

And this could indeed be the final rule. By timing the effective date as he did, Mr. Jeffress made it extremely difficult for Congress or any new administration that might disagree with the regulation to rescind it. Unless a federal appeals court rules otherwise, businesses will have to comply with all of the rule's tenets by the middle of next October.

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The individual credited with raising the profile of risk management through his leadership of the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. succumbed to lymphoma this year.

Granville E. "Ron" Judd, who was RIMS' executive director from 1967 to 1991, died June 9 at the age of 71. Mr. Judd was widely considered a visionary who not only turned RIMS into an internationally recognized nonprofit society but also tirelessly promoted the profession of risk management.

One of his first acts after taking the helm of RIMS' predecessor, the American Society of Insurance Management, was to revamp its annual gathering, placing a strong emphasis on educational programs. He also sought participation by exhibitors as a way to raise funds for the organization. Today, RIMS' annual conference includes more than 200 educational sessions and hundreds of exhibits.

When ASIM changed its name to RIMS in 1975, Mr. Judd reached out to risk management organizations in other countries and was instrumental in creating an international risk management forum.

An ardent advocate of education, Mr. Judd oversaw the creation and subsequent growth of the Spencer Educational Foundation, which provides scholarships to students of risk management and insurance.

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When the U.S. Department of Labor held hearings last year on a proposed regulation that would cut down on the time that health care plans have to inform enrollees of coverage decisions, the reaction from employers and insurers was overwhelmingly negative. The deadlines, many complained, were unrealistically short and did not distinguish between a request for coverage before a service was performed and after a service had been provided.

Those complaints found a sympathetic ear at the Labor Department. Leslie Kramerich, then the deputy assistant secretary for policy at the department's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, committed herself to replacing what many viewed as the out-of-date 1977 regulations and promised to be "very open to how to do it differently."

Ms. Kramerich, now the acting assistant secretary, was as good as her word. The final regulations not only give health plans more time than did the proposed rules to make coverage determinations but they also set different deadlines depending on whether services had already been provided. During her three years at the Labor Department, Ms. Kramerich has become known for common-sense approach and her willingness to listen to those affected by government rules.

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Keeping a good executive can be difficult, especially if he is popular and known for his ability to achieve consensus and accomplish goals.

That helps explain why George Nichols III, the immediate past president of the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners, is resigning his job as Kentucky insurance commissioner at the end of the year. Mr. Nichols has received four offers of senior management positions with out-of-state financial services and insurance companies, his spokesman said. He plans to decide by Christmas which he will accept.

Mr. Nichols, 40, was the first African-American and one of the youngest commissioners to serve as NAIC president. He also is the first African-American appointed as Kentucky's insurance commissioner.

His leadership in crafting and promptly articulating state insurance officials' increasingly pragmatic responses to efforts to reform financial services laws propelled his rise to prominence. He subsequently launched the NAIC's ongoing effort to develop a blueprint to implement that federal law while also streamlining other state insurance regulations.

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Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., is nothing if not persistent.

The affable dentist-turned-lawmaker kept promoting the so-called "patients' bill of rights" legislation that he had co-sponsored with Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. and that had handily passed the House in 1999, even after it become evident that his Senate colleagues did not want to use his measure as the basis for a compromise managed care reform bill. Rep. Norwood tried to allay the fears of business that his measure-which would allow beneficiaries to sue health plans over coverage decisions-would also expose them to new legal liability. But a series of proposals that he said would eliminate their potential liability was regarded by some employers as even worse than the original proposal.

A House/Senate conference committee failed to craft compromise legislation from the Norwood-Dingell bill and a narrower Senate bill that did not expand plan or employer liability before the election, and the measure died. But Rep. Norwood won re-election and, if the past is any indication, he'll be ready to push his version of managed care reform again when the 107th Congress convenes in January.

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Dean O'Hare, the chairman of Chubb Corp., has been a major figure in the insurance industry for many years as leader of his Warren, N.J.-based company's expansion in the United States and overseas. In 2000, though, Mr. O'Hare achieved prominence on a different front.

Mr. O'Hare became a high-profile, vocal advocate for congressional action to close what he labeled the "Bermuda tax loophole."

Bermuda companies with U.S. affiliates were using "phony reinsurance" to evade the payment of U.S. taxes and deprive the U.S. Treasury of "hundreds of millions of dollars," he said.

The attack provoked an equally spirited defense by Bermuda-based companies, and even Bermuda's premier weighed in on the subject.

Mr. O'Hare's protest received some congressional support and resulted in the creation of H.R. 4192, a bill that would have imposed taxes on such reinsurance arrangements. Though H.R. 4192 failed to make it out of Congress, a congressionally backed study of the matter by the U.S. Treasury remains a possibility.

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Former California Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush was once regarded as one of the state's most promising Republican politicians. But in 2000, Mr. Quackenbush's fame became notoriety, after the revelation of secret agreements between the Department of Insurance and insurers accused of mishandling Northridge earthquake claims.

Legislators holding hearings learned that settlement agreements required insurers to make "off the book" payments totaling $12.8 million to a non-profit foundation created by Mr. Quackenbush. But the foundation's funds didn't help earthquake victims; instead, they financed political polls, purchased television ads that featured Mr. Quackenbush and supported charities that could aid the commissioner's political aspirations, legislators were told.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and the Insurance Department have asked a state court to set aside the settlements.

Mr. Quackenbush resigned in late June. In October, newly appointed Commissioner Harry Low announced that the Insurance Department would spend no public funds to defend Mr. Quackenbush against criminal investigations still under way by the U.S. attorney, the California attorney general and the Sacramento County district attorney.

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Flamboyant insurance magnate Saul P. Steinberg's reversal of fortune has mirrored the swift decline of the company he led, Reliance Group Holdings Inc.

Reliance closed its doors and sold off many of its operations this year, done in by a huge debt burden and dismal underwriting results. Mr. Steinberg, it turned out, had also taken on large personal debts and has been forced to sell assets.

Facing those debts--some secured with Reliance stock--Mr. Steinberg earlier this year sold his 34-room Manhattan apartment for between $30 million and $40 million. He put up for sale his collection of old-master paintings, valued at $52 million, and auctioned off $14 million in antiques. And if that weren't tough enough, Mr. Steinberg's mother sued him for failing to repay a $5 million loan that she said should have been paid off in 1999.

Reliance shares were once the foundation of Mr. Steinberg's wealth; only a year ago, his 31.3% stake in Reliance was worth more than $250 million, even after an already-steep drop in Reliance's stock price. By last month, the stock had dropped to mere pennies a share. The New York Stock Exchange has since delisted Reliance, making Mr. Steinberg's holding virtually worthless.