This is Part One of the Industry Primers audio program on property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, published by Latticework from MOI Global. It is the first of two audio programs that accompany the written primer, and it is the story of the industry, told for a general audience. The account is built from documented scenes, with the people named, the dates given, and the participants quoted in their own words. No background in insurance is assumed, and the terms it uses are explained as they arrive. This episode is public.
The program runs in fourteen sections:
Four Hours on a Saturday. A twenty-year-old in Benjamin Graham’s class at Columbia takes the train to Washington in January 1951, pounds on a closed door, and gets four hours from Lorimer Davidson on why selling direct cost less than selling through agents.
The House That Sold Information. Edward Lloyd’s coffee house in London, first mentioned in 1688, where the product was shipping news, and Lloyd’s List, in print from 1734.
Sixty-Eight Companies. The fire that took New York’s financial district on the night of December 16, 1835, and Eliphalet Terry of Hartford, who guaranteed his company’s checks with his directors’ private fortunes.
The Word Nobody Would Say. San Francisco on the morning of April 18, 1906, and the argument after the fires about which cause of loss the policies had covered.
The Farmer Who Noticed. The New York Court of Appeals strikes down the state’s workers’ compensation law on March 24, 1911, and the Triangle Shirtwaist factory burns the next day.
Fifteen Minutes, No Lawyer, No Audit. Berkshire Hathaway pays $8.6 million in 1967 for National Indemnity and National Fire and Marine, on a page and a half of contract and no audit.
Capacity Is an Attitudinal Concept. The Manville Corporation files for bankruptcy on August 26, 1982 with 16,500 asbestos suits pending, and the industry learns what one word in an old policy was worth.
Down to the Last Cufflink. The Lloyd’s Act of 1982, and the Names whose liability for what their agents wrote had no limit at all.
Karen Clark at the Fax Machine. Hurricane Andrew comes ashore in south Dade County on August 24, 1992, and a model built in Boston puts the industry loss above $13 billion while the market is still working from a much smaller number.
I Violated the Noah Rule. The September 11 attacks produce about $32.5 billion of insured loss across property, aviation, workers’ compensation and liability at once, and Warren Buffett writes down the three rules his reinsurers were supposed to follow, and which two had been kept weakly.
Fair, Friendly Acquisitions. Prem Watsa takes over a failing Canadian trucking insurer in 1985 and renames it for the three words he intends to operate by.
A Bigger Slice of the Paella. Progressive, founded in Cleveland on March 10, 1937, and the underwriting profit objective it printed in 1971 and has not moved since.
Twenty-Two Days. The fire that took Paradise, California, on November 8, 2018, and the small Central Valley insurer the state moved to take over twenty-two days later.
Weather That Did Not Arrive. Greg Abel’s first annual letter, February 28, 2026, Berkshire’s insurance businesses at an 87.1 percent combined ratio for 2025 on the company’s own basis, and the single sentence that says why.
The program runs 1 hour 31 minutes (1:30:59). The written primer and its companion slide deck are on the Latticework Substack under the title Industry Primer: P&C Insurance & Reinsurance. Part Two, the deep dive for professional investors, is a separate episode, available to members of Latticework.
This audio program is published by MOI Global for educational purposes only. It is not investment advice, an offer, or a solicitation, and no security mentioned herein is recommended for purchase or sale. The publisher and contributors may hold positions in securities discussed. Figures are believed accurate as of the dates stated but are not warranted; listeners should verify all data against primary sources before relying on it. Nothing herein constitutes legal, tax, or accounting advice.
