Andrew Tobias quotes

There are only two things as complicated as insurance accounting and I have no idea what they are. (Andrew Tobias)
But successful investors tend to be not too self-destructive. They tend to be patient, they tend not to follow the crowd, and they tend not to be too guilty about winning. View quote
Andrew Tobias
No wonder lawyers, who control the legal system, have fought so hard, and with great success, against "no fault" insurance. No fault, no lawsuits. No lawsuits, no lunch. View quote
Andrew Tobias
You want 21 percent risk free? Pay off your credit cards. View quote
Andrew Tobias
The life insurance industry is filled with good people who believe in their work and their companies, but who may never have challenged the assumptions underlying their efforts. View quote
Andrew Tobias
In short: Readily available low-cost life insurance would be a threat to the industry, and whatever threatens the life insurance industry threatens America. View quote
Andrew Tobias
I think a lot of people would rather have more control over their life than less. View quote
Andrew Tobias
Man's natural life span, 75 to 90 years or so, has not increased. It is the number of us who manage to attain it that has increased. View quote
Andrew Tobias
There were no jobs created in America from 1945, when the war ended, through 2003. How could there be? Taxes were too high. Preposterously so under Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan (who left office with a 28 percent rate on long-term capital gains) and Bush the Elder. View quote
Andrew Tobias
Nobody wants campaign finance reform more than me. It would save me a fortune. View quote
Andrew Tobias
The first American insurance company was the Friendly Society for the Mutual Insurance of Houses Against Fire, founded in Charles Town in South Carolina, in 1735. (Andrew Tobias)
What kind of bank gives back 65 percent-often less-of what you deposit? Indeed, when you compare the services of a bank and an insurance company, common sense suggests something is out of whack. View quote
Andrew Tobias
Life insurance is a commodity. View quote
Andrew Tobias
Having no national system of catastrophic health insurance, we have, through the courts, managed to patch together pieces of a not very satisfactory one. View quote
Andrew Tobias
The industry cannot long offer unneeded or overpriced insurance if people will not buy it. View quote
Andrew Tobias
Rule of thumb: The more trimmings an insurance plan has and the harder someone is pitching it, the faster you should run. View quote
Andrew Tobias
Life insurance in America has traditionally been dominated by mutual insurers. Twelve of the fifteen largest life insurers are mutuals. View quote
Andrew Tobias
The larger the deductible you choose, the less insurance you are buying. Insurers want to sell insurance. View quote
Andrew Tobias
The first life insurance societies where formed in England in the years between 1692 and 1720. In America, life insurance became available to the clergy through the Presbyterian Ministers Fund, founded in 1759(still in existence), and the Episcopal Corporation, founded ten years later. View quote
Andrew Tobias
Hay fever suffers tend to be above average in intelligence,... View quote
Andrew Tobias
The life insurance policies advertised on the radio with the line "You cannot be turned down for this coverage!" are actually saying, " For policies this small, it would cost us more to decide whom to turn down than simply to accept everybody-and make them pay through the nose." (Andrew Tobias)
Not surprisingly, the insurance lobby recoils in horror at the prospect of automatic coverage ( including, when it was first proposed, Social Security), no matter how efficient it may be. Automatic coverage eliminates sales commissions and profit. View quote
Andrew Tobias
There's no question young drivers have far more accidents than older ones-but is it our aim to keep them off the roads? Or to allow only rich young people (who can afford the premiums) to drive? View quote
Andrew Tobias
I was a writer for 'New York' magazine. I had been to business school, but what did I know? Still, everybody from the receptionists on up to the editor would ask me what they should do with their money. View quote
Andrew Tobias
The best thing I have are 5 percent bonds from 1780, denominated from $1 to $20. As far as I can tell, they are obligations from the United States of America, so I should be able to walk down to the Federal Reserve and redeem the uncanceled ones. With 217 years of accrued interest, for a $20 bond, that's about $800,000. View quote
Andrew Tobias