JohnKliewer

What do I know about the insurance industry? Little beyond writing them a check in return for a renewed policy every year. But I raise my eyebrows at any acquisitions these days.

My experience with acquisitions in general is that the entities involved win while the consumer loses. Two hometown banks in which I have accounts recently both went through their own individual acquisitions. As a client of both banks I lost perks, interest on balance in checking was cancelled, ATM machine performance declined, they now charge me for blank checks, and I had to bother sending new routing numbers to entities with which we do business, some of which are still not sorted out. Worst of all, the effects of acquisitions and mergers is a decline in competition.