Saturday, July 26, 2025

No. 454: Joseph M. Belth, Ph.D.
OCTOBER 22, 1929—JULY 12, 2025

BLOOMINGTON—Joseph M. Belth, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Insurance in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University (Bloomington), 95, passed away July 12, 2025. He was born in Syracuse, New York, on October 22, 1929.

Belth was the author of The Insurance Forum: A Memoir (2015), Life Insurance: A Consumer's Handbook (1973 and 1985), several other books, and many journal articles. He founded The Insurance Forum, an independent monthly periodical, and was its editor for its entire 40 years, from January 1974 through December 2013. He was a blogger at www.josephmbelth.com from 2013 through January 2022. 

For The Insurance Forum, Belth received a George Polk Award in 1990 in the "special publications" category. He received the 2017 John Newton Russell Memorial Award in recognition of a lifetime of professional excellence, service to the life insurance and financial planning industry, and commitment to ethical conduct. For one of his books, Participating Life Insurance Sold by Stock Companies, he received the 1966 Elizur Wright Award for outstanding original contribution to the literature of insurance. He received a 1999 Huebner Gold Medal for distinguished service to education and professionalism. He has received many other awards.

Belth holds degrees from Auburn (New York) Community College (now Cayuga Community College), Syracuse University, and the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn he was a fellow of the S. S. Huebner Foundation for Insurance Education. He was a life insurance agent in Syracuse for five years in the 1950s. He was a past president of the American Risk and Insurance Association, an organization of insurance professors and others interested in insurance education and research. He had been a member of the Indiana University faculty since 1962.

Belth was the subject of a page-one profile in The Wall Street Journal on January 5, 1978. He was also profiled in Barron's on June 8, 1981, and in The New York Times on April 17, 1990. 

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Monday, May 16, 2022

No. 453: My Retirement

I am now fully retired, and I no longer follow the insurance industry closely. As a result, I will not be posting any more items on my blog. Packages offered are still available and we will email any you request. When you ask for them, please include the number and title of the blog post in which the package you request was offered. 

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Friday, January 28, 2022

No. 452: The Texas State Securities Board Announces the Top Investor Threats for 2022

On January 10, 2022, the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) announced the top investor threats and urged caution before purchasing popular and volatile unregistered investments, especially those involving cryptocurrency and digital assets. TSSB also announced guidance for investors, including steps to take to protect from fraud in the new year. The top 2022 threats were determined by a survey of securities regulators conducted by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA).

TSSB is a frequent source of valuable information for persons interested in securities regulation. I recommend that such persons sign up to receive TSSB news releases and updates regularly.

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Friday, January 7, 2022

No. 451: A Date That Shall Live in Infamy

On December 7, 2021, I gave considerable thought to the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the nation from the Capitol the next morning, he called the date of the attack "a date that shall live in infamy."

My family learned of the attack on the radio at the north end of the living room in our home in Syracuse, New York. In our driveway was our 1936 Oldsmobile sedan, which provided us with very little transportation during the war because of gasoline rationing.

An important 1960 book about World War II is entitled The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William L. Shirer. The book describes in detail what happened in Adolf Hitler's bunker below the Chancellery in Berlin. It was in that bunker where Hitler spent his final days, where he prepared his last will and testament, and where he shot himself to death on April 30, 1945.

I traveled to Hawaii many years after the war. I was deeply moved when I visited the U.S.S. Missouri memorial.

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Tuesday, December 28, 2021

No. 450: The South Carolina Department of Insurance Attacks the SHIP Rehabilitation Plan

On November 16, 2021, the South Carolina Department of Insurance (SCDOI) issued a media release entitled "SCDOI Director Ray Farmer Seeks to Stop the Implementation of the Rehabilitation Plan for Senior Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania (SHIP) in South Carolina." The first sentence of the media release reads: "Yesterday, Ray Farmer, Director of the SCDOI, took another step toward protecting consumers who have long-term care insurance with SHIP from potentially detrimental rate increases or benefit reductions."

On November 19, Chief Administrative Judge L. Casey Manning of the Fifth Judicial Circuit in Columbia, South Carolina, blocked immediate implementation of the SHIP Rehabilitation Plan. At this writing, the fate of the SHIP Rehabilitation Plan is not known.

I have written extensively about SHIP's financial problems. To review my posts about SHIP, click here or search for SHIP on my blog using the search box in the extreme upper left corner.

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Tuesday, December 14, 2021

No. 449: The AM Best Business Trilogy

On August 21, 2020, A. M. Best Company published The AM Best Business Trilogy. The company sent me a review copy consisting of three hardback books.

One book, entitled The Man, is a 275-page (including end notes and index) biography of Alfred M. Best. Another book, entitled The Company, is a 581-page (including end notes and index) history of A. M. Best Company. The third book, entitled The Industry, is an 815-page (including end notes and index) history of the credit rating agencies.

The Trilogy is an impressive piece of work. It is available for $75 from A. M. Best Company or from Amazon.

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Wednesday, December 8, 2021

No. 448: A Class Action Lawsuit Against Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State and Others

In 2019, Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State signed into law a state program designed to address the problem of financing the long-term care exposure faced by residents of the state. The statute created a "long term service and support trust fund" referred to as "WA Care," and at the beginning of next year workers will be required to start contributing to the fund. WA Care is the nation's first state-operated long-term care insurance program.

On November 9, 2021, three entities and six individuals filed in federal court in Seattle a class action lawsuit against Governor Inslee and three others. (See Pacific Bells, LLC et al. v. Jay Inslee et al., U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, Case No. 2:21-cv-1515.) Here is the first paragraph of the introduction in the 21-page complaint:
Beginning January 1, 2022, Washington State workers will pay $0.58 per $100 (.58%) of earnings to the Long-Term Service and Support Trust Fund (the "Trust") pursuant to the Long Term Services and Support Trust Program, referred to as "WA Care" or the "Act" and codified as RCW 50B.04, et seq. This action challenges the Act and requests a declaratory judgment that the Act is unenforceable as it violates ERISA and federal and state laws governing employee benefit plans and multiple employer welfare arrangements ("MEWAs").
The Judge
The case has been assigned to Senior Judge Thomas S. Zilly. President Reagan nominated him in February 1988 and the Senate confirmed him in April 1988. He assumed senior status in January 2004.

General Observations
This interesting case is in its early stages. I plan to provide an update in due course.

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