Hartford Financial is Slip-Sliding Away

Judging by the spate of news reports flying around financial circles it appears that after almost 200 years of gliding down the highway of steady, solid success, Hartford Financial Services Group (Hartford) is about to slip slide away into history. And it my opinion, nothing short of an Allianz SE buyout can save it.

You may have read the latest. Bloomberg News reported Thursday (April 23) “Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. is seeking bids from rivals including Travelers Cos. for its flagship property insurance business, said people familiar with the matter, in a sign that damage from the financial crisis may lead to a wholesale breakup of the 200-year-old insurer.”

...Rather than make history, Hartford instead began the slide down the slippery slope to oblivion when — in a short-sighted quest for higher bonuses, sales and stock prices — company executives began to violate the very principles of risk recognition and management that had been fundamental to Hartford’s two-century run of success. In so doing, these execs pushed this venerable icon to the brink of self-destruction...

Bob Mac on Business: Hartford Financial is Slip-Sliding Away