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Friday, Feb. 19. That's the date that the 2010 Power Broker^TM winners will be posted, as well as the rest of our February issue. So stay tuned!

The winners of the 2010 Benefits Power Broker^TM Awards will appear in our June issue. To nominate someone for the awards, or to put yourself in the running, please download the 2010 application.

The winners of the 2010 Reinsurance Power Broker^TM Awards will appear in our August issue. To nominate someone for the awards, or to put yourself in the running, please download the 2010 application.

Reinsurers, holding firm in the wake of the financial meltdown of 2008, covet liquidity and eye a moderate upswing in 2010 pricing.

The individuals who took the honors this year in the Analytics/Capital Markets, Property, Fac, Casualty and Professional Liability Categories.

Our annual Power Broker^TM Awards will not be announced until February 2010, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't get a jump on nominating your favorite broker for the premier industry recognition.

Benefits brokers are in a tough spot. They need to generate profits in a universe of declining revenues, yet their clients want their services to prepare for regulatory changes and new ways to deliver healthcare.

Find out who won this year's 2009 Benefits Power Broker^TM Awards.

Hey brokers, listen up! There is a way to reduce healthcare costs while improving care. Say hello to customized coverage and value-based insurance design.

MetLife says employers fit into four categories when it comes to benefits. Which are you? (Don't worry, none is bad.)

A new benefit could help workers caring for dependent loved ones, and deliver increased productivity to their employers.

Innovators claim to hold keys to reducing the cost of healthcare for employers, but could they just be pointing fingers when the real source of savings is in controlling utilization?

The application deadline for the Reinsurance Power Broker^TM Awards, which spotlight the best of the best in reinsurance intermediaries and analytics, has been extended one week. Apply here.

For brokers, there's nothing quite like a financial crisis to test their commitment to service and to stretch their imaginations in the service of clients.

Many brokers don't begin by planning to go into the insurance business. But once they're there, they can't imagine being anywhere else.

After a false start or two in the wake of the contingent commissions scandal unleashed by former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Marsh's captains say their ship is finally on the right tack.

Beecher Carlson snaps up property brokers in the wake of last year's mergers, adding to its traditional casualty strengths.

Wells Fargo Insurance Services Inc. is one to watch as it integrates Wachovia's insurance unit and bets on its ability to sell insurance products to banking customers.

From Washington to Obama, a people business evolves and prospers as it meets the needs of a world in which risks grow more complex.

The 2008 Willis-HRH blockbuster combo vaults the merged firm into the No. 2 spot in the North American marketplace as a credit crisis dampens dealing.

Insurance buyers in the corporate, nonprofit and public spheres had a particular interest in the AIG bailout--as well as particularly strong points of view. We heard them all during the Power Broker^TM research process.

For the first time in Power Broker^TM history, we surveyed our winners and finalists, all in hopes of getting a glimpse of the "Power Broker^TM lifestyle." Where do they travel? What do they eat during client dinners (and how much do they spend)? What's their favorite drink when closing the deal or unwinding at the end of the day? In their dog-eat-dog world, do they go to temple to pray for redemption?

We asked some of the familiar faces in the Power Broker^TM Awards--some current winners and some brokers who've won a few years running--a simple question: What makes for a good client or a good carrier? Here's a collection of their telling responses:

Picking a Power Broker^TM gets harder every year, but in the end we have to make the call.

Good brokers just land in insurance by chance? Not so for today's risk management students.

Banking insurance brokerage fee income came to $3.45 billion in the first six months of 2008, showing this strategy has legs, even as use of the cross-selling strategy has slowed in recent years.

This year the response to Power Broker^TM Awards was nearly overwhelming. We had to evaluate and research more than 1,500 entries in our 25 categories. Because the volume was so large, we also decided this year to list those brokers who almost made the cut as Finalists. You can find them in their appropriate category below, listed underneath the Winners.

An alphabetical list of this year's winners:

To heck with a down economy, Brown & Brown Inc. is buying agencies and spending money on talent.

An economic downturn had its impact on the number of brokerage acquisitions in 2008--that's a documented, mathematical fact. Transparency will remain a watchword for those agencies seeking buyers in 2009.

A carve-out approved last year allowing acquired firms such as HRH to continue to receive contingency fees for three years paved the way for the Willis HRH deal.

The Itasca, Ill-based firm runs against a slight purchasing downtrend in 2008.

Integro's Peter Garvey is still willing to play David to larger firms' Goliath.

We trace the broker M&As that ultimately led to the Marsh, Aon, Willis, Arthur J. Gallagher, and Wells Fargo brokerages that we know and love today.

Reinsurance brokers these days, while still placing a premium on maintaining good relationships, are managing ever more sophisticated analytical machinery.

We've done all the nitty-gritty dirty work for you here, breaking down all of our Power Broker^TM Re data into a nice, neat, alphabetized list, including the broker's firm and title.

Rising medical costs and retirement fears beset those seeking best and brightest. Wellness plans are key to new health era.

Self-insured employers spending millions of dollars for employee health benefits face increased new costs and regulatory hurdles from state legislatures searching for ways to carry out their healthcare reform initiatives.

Don't be fooled by the absence of the word "insurance" in "self-funding." And don't be fooled by the role of the federal government and federal statutes in the regulation of self-funded benefits plans. Insurance is the very foundation of these plans. Any risk manager who thinks otherwise is likely, someday, to have a big surprise.

Broker-driven technology that spurs competition is reducing small group health cost increases, thanks in part to the use of Web-based enrollment software which is helping brokers and their clients market a health plan to four or more carriers simultaneously.

As of 2007, all data were submitted to the University of Michigan's prestigious Health Management Research Center for analysis, benchmarking and reporting. This new partnership with UM-HMRC represents an important step forward by bringing the resources of Dr. Dee Edington and his team of data managers and analysts into the EMPAQ, or Employer Measures of Productivity, Absence and Quality, process.

Who are this year's Power Broker^TM winners, and what makes them tick? A market hard or soft, when it comes to serving commercial insurance customers, service still rules the day.

Though many buyers were happy with their individual brokers last year, others weren't shy about blurting out brokers' shortcomings.

First-time standouts among this year's Power Broker^TM selections share the following traits: leadership, ambition, knowledge, service and, of course, youth.

The brokerage business is fertile soil for growing family trees--if anything because all producers are measured equally no matter what last name they bear.

DeWitt Stern Group has taken a cache of entertainment business talent wrested away from Marsh and Aon and run with it.

Here's the full list of the 151 Power Broker^TM winners for 2008, listed by category, last name first, and including their firm.

Benefits consultants and brokers, it's time to shine. Our June issue will feature a special Power Broker^TM Awards section just for the tops in the employee benefits field. So employers and colleagues, get nominating.

A Power Broker^TM in 2007 is likely to be a man with 20 years of experience working at one of the nation's big four brokerages. Beyond that, who they are, where they've come from and what makes them stand out is anyone's guess. Unless you've read up on this year's winners of the Power Broker^TM Award.

What rookies lack in experience and seniority, they make up in vigor, energy and new ideas.

Willis CEO Joe Plumeri elbows his way into a patriarchal and complacent "gentlemen's club" only to be rebuffed in his quest to become the world's No. 1 broker. No one believes they've seen the last of him, or that a man not even trained as an insurance broker may still have a lesson to teach the industry.

Having attracted assignments from more than 250 clients, the upstart broker is poised to make a move in the big-client market.

A focus on industry niches, overlaid with a regional approach, has paid off for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., the world's No. 4 broker.

Utilizing a two-step proposal process takes time and effort, but it yields more competitive bids.