Maybe Mr. Duperreault should read this.
CODE OF ETHICS FOR THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND
SENIOR FINANCIAL OFFICERS
Effective June 2013
The Company has developed and adopted a Code of Ethics applicable to its Chief Executive Officer and senior financial officers to promote honest and ethical conduct; full, fair, accurate, timely and understandable disclosure; and compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations.
Honest and Candid Conduct Each director, executive officer, and senior financial officer owes a duty to AIG to act with integrity. Integrity requires, among other things, being honest and candid.
Denying Claims Some of the nation’s biggest insurance companies have denied valid claims in an attempt to boost their bottom lines. These companies have rewarded employees who successfully denied claims, replaced employees who would not, and when all else failed, engaged in outright fraud to avoid paying claims.
Senior executives have the paramount responsibility to embed ethical behavior into the culture of the company. By leadership, boards and CEOs can build an ethical organization and become the benchmark to be emulated by competitors, industry peers,and the private sector in general. Such visible commitment helps keep the organization on track to progress from just having a firm commitment to business ethics to creating an organizational culture where ethics is a central consideration in business decisions across all layers of a company. The perceived and observed behavior by senior management sets the tone throughout the company, it establishes the commitment and reputation of anticorruption initiatives, and it shapes the identity of the company.
Corporate Ethics Programs There are varying schools of thought on the effectiveness of corporate ethics programs. Some organizations use a reactive approach to ethics training, where it is a defense mechanism to help the organization avoid legal ramifications of a perceived wrongdoing. Then there is the proactive training, which consists of an ongoing ethical training program that typically impacts the entire organization and staff. The ultimate goal of any ethics program is to create a culture where everyone knows the importance of doing the right thing, even if it means losing money for the company.
Honesty, integrity and trustworthiness. These qualities always top the list of Code of Ethics issued by various organizations around the world. Without honesty and integrity, there is no foundation of trust. Financial services, like insurance, cannot successfully operate without their professionals being persons of high integrity. Unequivocal honesty is what leads to creating the trust of policyholders. Policyholders must never knowingly be provided with information that is false or misleading. Insurance professionals must not engage in misrepresentation, as slight as that might actually be. Fraud and/or deceit cannot be tolerated; either act should lead to criminal charges.
All of these market conduct/consumer protection concerns finally boil down to one thing; ethical behavior. People who act with proper ethics are unlikely to be guilty of the aforementioned tactics. Instilling ethical behavior among insurance industry participants is a key to winning the respect and trust of the average insurance consumer. It cannot be earned overnight. It takes considerable time to gain this and develop a reputation.
The bottom line is that insurance companies make money when they don’t pay claims.They’ll do anything to avoid paying, because if they wait long enough, they know the policyholders will die.
The insurance company made it so hard to make a claim that people either died or gave up.
AND MOST OF ALL, DO NOT GIVE UP: Insurance companies count on you giving up. Fight for your rights.
America cannot continue to suffer this rash of high-profile corporate scandals or the very essence of the United States Corporation will be looked upon in an extremely negative light. Corporate America has to get back to the ideals of steady and long-term growth, instead of fostering this notion of instant results and rewards. The case can certainly be made that the ethical and fair approach to business will benefit everyone directly or indirectly involved in the long run. There are a number of strong arguments supporting the view that ethics should be brought into business. Taken together, the arguments some philosophical and some more empirical suggest that businesses are shortsighted when they fail to take the ethical aspects of their activities into consideration Thomas et al., 2004) Ethical practices have a vital role to play in corporations. Through education and leadership by example, strive to infuse small businesses and large corporations with these important principles. All have seen the huge social, financial, and cultural cost of not doing so by the major corporate scandals in the last ten years. Hopefully, the next decade and beyond will reflect a paradigm shift to a more ethical corporate America.
The crisis of poor ethics in corporate America has jeopardized public trust, caused an erosion of organizational cultures, created human suffering, caused unemployment, and profit losses. These ethical issues may also cause a loss in corporate competitive standing, erosion of the American economy and standard of living Turner, 2006. Obviously, this is a serious issue; one that impacts many Americans. It’s equally serious then, that society’s response to this corporate ethical and moral dilemma is well planned and executed.