Getting it done: in the current hard market--which isn't expected to end anytime soon--the...

Insurance market prospects looked rosy for risk managers in January 2001. A panel of insurance industry analysts and chief executive officers at the Property and Casualty Joint Industry Forum predicted an abbreviated cycle. The hard market, they forecasted, would not last beyond the second quarter of 2001. The consensus had the insurance market turning the corner in March 2002, with prices beginning to fall shortly thereafter.

Nobody has to tell risk managers that the predicted turnaround never materialized, but the news is not all bad, either. Although the hard market