Aflac obviously needs no introduction. In fact, even if this magazine were in the hands of your clients, no background would be necessary. Say what you want about the company and its iconic water fowl, but they practically reinvented insurance marketing.

As I sit here among a growing pile of pine needles and straggling scraps of wrapping paper, my wandering eyes found an interesting piece on Forbes about consumer-driven health care.

After the polls defied the pols, and the country re-elected the president, the hand-wringing began about the end of the modern-day Republican Party. But the Democrats should be worried, too.

The pace of change in the health care market might be glacial when it comes to consumer engagement, but it remains steady. Employers, and by extension their employees, are moving toward a more account-based form of health care funding, but its clearly not happening overnight.

Christmas is now only two weeks away with the new year lurking in the shadows a week later. Maybe its all this talk of the cliffand the impending doom it impliesbut flipping the calendar this year just doesnt seem to harbor the same batch of hope and jubilation.

OK, let's forget for a second how badly Gallup bungled their presidential polls this year. After more than 60 years in the businessand doing it so well that your name actually becomes synonymous with what you dothey're allowed an off day.

Rate review program forces carriers to reveal how premiums are spent.

The eternal electoral courtships over. And now we can move on.