way through college in New York City.

Forty years later, he is still in the business in a career which has seen him move from the US to Bermuda and now to London where he heads up ACE Ltd.'s operations in the Lloyd's of London insurance market.

"Other than delivering newspapers, (insurance) is the only thing I've ever done in my life,'' he told The Royal Gazette .

As an employee of ACE since near its inception nearly 11 years ago, he conceded the company has grown faster and written more business in more lines than he ever dreamed of.

"And certainly in recent years under Brian Duperreault, with the growth in business lines we've seen a more balanced book of business and for the employees, greater job opportunities and job satisfaction,'' he said.

Today, Mr. Loschert is responsible at ACE's London operations for policy and direction of underwriting. He is coordinating the various types of lines that the different syndicates write.

ACE recently bought two syndicate groups at Lloyd's, Methuen and Ockham Worldwide and now manages $1.25 billion, or almost eight percent of Lloyd's total capacity.

He said the interesting challenge is: "To take the various Lloyd's syndicates and agencies ACE has acquired and put them together as a team to increase their capacity, increase their financial strength, to increase their worldwide premium writings by using Lloyd's licences, and to make them more efficient by being able to make some more permanent capital.'' He leaves a Bermuda market that faces challenges of its own.

He said: "The problem it faces is not just unique to Bermuda, but the competition that faces all insurance companies. There is more capacity than needed. There are going to be fewer insurance companies with greater financial strength. You see the big European companies buying up other firms.

"What that means of course is, sometimes in the cycle the rates go down. When the rates go down, income is under pressure.

"What the Bermuda market should not do is keep their volume up by writing bad business. You must maintain the view that at a certain point in time when the price is so low that you will not write it. You must be able to exercise control.

"Why it can happen here, and maybe not always elsewhere, is because all of the underwriting is concentrated in small groups of people. There's only one office for ACE, unlike some big insurance companies that may have 50 offices, with each one trying to do something different.

"Here, it is a concentration in terms of the underwriting decision-making process.'' He sees the Bermuda market facing some strains in terms of industry support staff, largely because of the need for more accounting staff.

"It would be good to have the education system look at more people going into that profession. And actuaries. I don't know how many local actuaries there are, but I don't think there are many.

"I realise there wasn't the need for it 20 years ago, but there are good opportunities for young people today, if they get the necessary qualifications for the industry.

"The education system could promote more in the area of mathematics and thinking, or analytical skills.

"The firms do a pretty good job of trying to help with training, but they can't seem to get enough students to take five years of education, or whatever, and sit the variety of necessary exams. And yet, there is a crying need for it.'' The Bermuda Foundation for Insurance Studies, which has been set up to propel more Bermudians into the industry through financial help with their training, can go a long way to addressing the shortfall of local talent, he says.

But Mr. Loschert noted: "I hope the potential students for this programme take the initiative. You can have all the money you want put aside for the education, but if the individual young man or young woman is not interested in taking the time ...'' ACE's London operations will give Bermudians the chance to work in a different market, he added.

"We are going to have an exchange programme for young employees,'' he said.

"We'll send one of our young employees to London for a year and bring one from London over here.

"It's a good opportunity for a young person here to get experience overseas and have a job to come back to here.'' And senior underwriters at ACE's London operations will be encouraged to participate as fully as possible in industry and Lloyd's boards. As one of the largest capital providers at Lloyd's, Mr. Loschert said, ACE has a responsibility to provide their advice and knowledge where needed.

Mr. Loschert is also quick with an opinion on the controversial Superfund, established in the early 1980s to fund the clean-up of hundreds of polluted dump sites in the US.

In recent years, the US government has tried alternative methods to fund the costs. Meanwhile, clean-up efforts at the various sites have been slow.

To date, more money has been spent on litigation than on clean-up, as various interests seek to place the blame and the bill with other parties. Some argue only the lawyers are benefiting.

Mr. Loschert sees a simple solution: "The US government has to take the final decision to tax the American people to pay for it. They must eliminate the argument over who did it. There is too much money being wasted in the legal system, and not enough money being spent on dealing with it.

"They should just tax everybody ten cents a gallon on gasoline, and use that money to clean the sites up.

"Companies and their insurers are paying and the public should be paying as well, just to get the matter over and done with. Politicians just don't want to have to face up to the problem.'' William Loschert