New offices had linoleum instead of carpet, even
though it actually cost more. It just looked cheaper, and kept the Texas Railroad Commission from intense scrutiny.

As a sales meeting, where customers pay to come, it seems to make sense in general. The excessive charges can be billed to amy employee who was not consistent with the AIG expense account policies.

For instance, did the independent agents pay for their own rooms and lodging? If so, the cost to the company is the conference spaces and the trainers. Could it have been held at corporate HQ? You would still have to provide the lodging, and people would be less eager to attend. Could it have been done over the internet? I’ve used some of those conferencing products and they have been disappointing. Moreover, you don’t get the time to sit around the pool (the bar, the lobby) and schmooze with other people in your industry. You can learn important things and make useful contacts there; it helps to justify the cost of the event.

If you are complaining, let me ask this: are you in an industry where you are expected to attend these things? I have been, and I never considered them a vacation. I came home exhausted, needing a vacation. Not that they weren’t fun, and valuable. But they were not six days in a spa.

Granted they are at a “party” but ya’ know you don’t goof off when the boss is watching!

And folks, the American people are watching – it is our dime.

The American people just elected a Marxist with close ties to America haters, terrorists and racists. The only thing the American people are watching is “Dancing With the Stars”.

Screw AIG. They are screwing us.

Your government is screwing you. AIG doesn’t have the power to confiscate your money against your will to waste as they please. Only government has that power.

I see now that, having lost power, we’ve decided to do that instead.

Government should not have “bailed” AIG out, but doing so does not give government more business in AIG’s private business.

That is exactly what the Dems want.

Give AIG tax payer funded money.
Give AIG bad press (such as this).
Get the “public” in a roar about it.
Pass laws mandating “oversight”.
Eliminate private enterprise.

What’s next? Are you going to start following AIG employees to happy hour on Friday nights and start reporting on the bar tab?

So, let me get this straight. Financial advisors are only going to support a “struggling company” when they get to attend fancy events like this? They aren’t going to bother with AIG if they don’t get theirs?

highhopes on November 11, 2008 at 7:46 PM

That’s right, your already spending time and effort convincing your clients that AIG is safe enough for their money, you can easily sell another company’s product, especially when you get to go to the other company’s sales conference.

It’s human nature and capitalism — why work harder for less perks.
David

Ed, please answer!

Independent FPs have the right to spend their money in any manner they see fit.

What’s next? Are you going to start scrutinizing AIG customers next? What’s wrong with you people?

Even after a $440,000 spa treatment for AIG EMPLOYEES and their FAMILIES at an ‘exclusive Southern California Resort’, and the $100,000 Hunting trip for AIG EXECUTIVES… both of which occured AFTER the first multi-tens-of-billions of dollars bailout payment, you post up in here that AIG is simply ‘misunderstood’ and gosh golly gee-whiz, they’re really swell folks just spending tens of millions of dollars on ’seminars’ that are necessary to run the business.

Get off your knees, suck ups, and spit it out before you develop a hankering for the flavor.

You cancel this event and events like it and you lose whatever business the Financial Advisers were giving the company — which is death to an already struggling company

.

So, let me get this straight. Financial advisors are only going to support a “struggling company” when they get to attend fancy events like this? They aren’t going to bother with AIG if they don’t get theirs?

um, no – they know that the media and the public will go for the most simplistic accounting (pun intended). You’ve heard Allahpundit use the word nuance? Well, the facts in this case aren’t as simple as you’re being told.

Paul_in_NJ on November 11, 2008 at 7:32 PM

And none of that really matters from a perception standpoint. Make all the snide comments about how damned stupid the American public is but fact of the matter is that they are angry that AIG is getting billions in taxpayer assistance and this is the second time they got caught involved participating in over-the-top events. They are angry over this constant stream of bailouts including the talk today about the auto industry bellying up to the public trough. There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight where Congress says no……..

In this environment, AIG needs to act like a corporation on the brink of failure. They need to show they are responsible stewards of the chance they have been given. They don’t need morons like you screaming that the public is just too damned stupid to have an opinion on this issue.

After the first multi-billion dollar bailout payment, formed from the sweat off OUR little people peon taxpayer backs (*you sniveling suck-up apologist a-holes*), what was the first two things AIG did, that we actually know about, when they got those multi-tens-of-BILLIONS of dollars handed to them on a silver platter?

Was the $440,000 Loserpalooza for AIG employees and families at the Southern California spa held for AIG non-employees and their AIG non-families? NO.

Was the $100,000 Hunting trip for the AIG Executives for non-AIG employees? NO.

…to just name TWO.

Get off your knees boys, spit it all out, and good God, BE FREE MEN! Not slaves to corporate greed, towing the company line like suck-up little robots, and quit aplogizing for those greedy self-serving Multi-Billionaire sons-of-bitches!

The truth will set you free.

…

um, no – they know that the media and the public will go for the most simplistic accounting (pun intended). You’ve heard Allahpundit use the word nuance? Well, the facts in this case aren’t as simple as you’re being told.

That may be true, but it doesn’t mean the public has any business sense.

MayBee on November 11, 2008 at 3:56 PM

When they take 190b from the public, it’s no longer a business until it’s paid back.

Sheesh, Cpa

I’d have to say that I am somewhat persuaded by the AIG response. The financial planners at the conference are their customers or at the very least, their retailers. When in financial trouble, the last thing a business needs to do is to stop promoting their product.
I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be scrutinized but I think that this time, scrutiny has yielded a conclusion that the facts do not support.

TBinSTL on November 11, 2008 at 3:28 PM

On the one hand, the amount of money actually doled out by AIG for this shindig is minimal and inconsequential in the faced of the tens of billions of taxpayer dole they’re lapping up.

On the other, it’s a PR disaster–anytime you have to explain who actually paid, how much, etc., etc., you’ve already lost the argument. The American public rightfully has a short attention span for this kind of stuff right now.

But the bigger issue is that while it’s important for companies, in general, to treat their sales staff (whether officially employees or not) well, anybody who only sells EIG because of a flashy few days at a resort is not a salesperson I would want representing my brand.

These conferences aren’t about product promotion, which can be handled much more efficiently and far less expensively through other means. It’s a vestige of business as usual which–for the foreseeable future–needs to change, and it needs to change as long as they’re taking one red cent of taxpayer money.

These are NOT EMPLOYEES — they are “INDEPENDENT” advisers! You guys are way off base. The conference was either a part of the compensation for high levels of business written or was designed to encourage future sales.

You cancel this event and events like it and you lose whatever business the Financial Advisers were giving the company — which is death to an already struggling company.

After all, why write business for a company that has no incentive convention when you can write for one that does — capitalism at it’s best!
David

Second, conferences of this type are arranged between four and six months in advance. At that time, space must be leased, and paid for (in whole or in part) in advance at well. Often, that deposit is nonrefundable.

Yes, they could have cancelled the shindig, but that would have simply thrown money away… and Congress does that well enough already.

And to forestall the obvious: no, I’m neither an AIG shill nor employee.

You mean all but $23,000.

My calculator doesn’t have enough decimals to compute the fraction of $190,000,000,000 that represents…

That’s right. Which is to say: If AIG wants to keep on getting these guy’s business, it will wine and dine them.

They’re not AIG employees, they’re not getting money from the bailout, they’re the people AIG needs to suck up to to stay in business.

Overblown.

- Slash budgets by 30% immediately
- Do not increase budgets next year (keep slashed amt)
- Hiring freeze across all levels of government
- Attrition the workforce down 30% over 3 years
- Transparency in govn’t purchasing depts

That would be a good start…

Unfortunately for us, as stock markets worldwide collapse, AIG is like Nero playing the fiddle as our 401Ks burn in a drunken orgy….