The Early Days of Retirement | Decompressing & Getting Fit

 Since my retirement from 40+ years in Casualty Claims in the insurance industry, I’ve been spending this summer decompressing and working to improve my wellness.

Handling multi million dollar claims in today’s litigation environment is extremely stressful because of the runaway tort system that allows juries to award plaintiffs lottery compensation for unfortunate accidents,  simple negligence or no negligence against a commercial entity or wealthy defendant. Trying to predict outcomes without a crystal ball or a OUIJA board became impossible. Even reasonable settlements approved by leadership  resulted in second, third or fourth guessing. Not to mention surviving-  much less navigating the postmortem of a nuclear verdict, which is loosely defined as a verdict of $10 Million or more.

Consequently, it has taken me 2 1/2 months to destress to the point where I can generally sleep through the night. I’ve been getting up earlier to play June Cleever,   brew coffee and pack a healthy lunch for my still working spousal unit who is transforming before my eyes on a GLP-1. No pearls at 5:30am🤣

After leisurely perusing WSJ, NYT, The Free Press, the Daily Mail and Pravda aka Washington Post, I’ve been heading to the local wellness center four to five mornings during the week for aquatic classes followed by yoga, barre or Pilates. Physically, I am recovering from my post Covid sedentary existence.  Covid caused my yoga and Pilates studios to close. I lack the discipline to workout regularly on my own.

At. 66, I feel better than I have in years. I’ve been building muscle, losing ‘softness’ and increased my cardiovascular function. 

I’ve made the conscious decision to put off any thought as to where to go from here until 2026. I’m still navigating my new found freedom and how my new financial reality will affect choices.

Above all, I feel happy, at peace and content. Now, I think I will wander out to the deck, stare at the pond and feed the koi. 🐟

Another $100 Million Dollar Verdict & Why I Retired From Casualty Claims

 

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article310865835.html

May 9, 2025 was my final day as an Executive Claim Director handling complex commercial liability litigation for Chubb Ltd. I’d been in the business from prehistoric times and 23 1/2 years with Chubb. I enjoyed complex coverage analysis; however, I endured my final years managing catastrophic injury claims in three of the most challenging states for civil litigation in the country: Florida, Georgia and Texas.

Other than writing coverage position letters, at which I excelled, the best part of my job involved negotiating settlements either directly with plaintiff attorneys with whom I’d develop a rapport or with the assistance of a mediator if there were complicated issues or multiple parties. For most of my career, the plaintiffs bar and claims professionals maintained collegial relationships and collaborated to reach reasonable resolutions for damaged parties  based upon liability and quantifiable damages. Only about 2% of lawsuits filed proceeded to trial.

In the past ten years, however, what was once a collaborative, albeit occasionally contentious process,  morphed into a toxic system by which plaintiff attorneys employed strategies of questionable ethics to vilify commercial defendants, anger jurors, and demand mind numbing verdicts or settlements completely out of proportion to actual damages. Elected judges, with campaign contributions coming from plaintiff attorneys, issue rulings based on ‘feelings’ rather than the law. A $100 Million verdict for the wrongful death of one person is no longer considered outrageous.

The stress of attempting to evaluate potential financial exposures based upon facts and probability became too overwhelming. Plaintiffs want a chance to win the lawsuit lottery. Plaintiff attorneys want ridiculous verdicts to post on their websites and billboards. Of note, few of these verdicts withstand the appeals process. Judges refuse to dismiss spurious suits. Juries have been brainwashed into hating corporations that make products, rent apartments to people, transport goods to Walmart, Costco or Publix. They fail to realize that such verdicts cause the costs of goods, services and rent to increase. 😱

For the case at hand, an apartment owner, property manager and security company allegedly failed to provide reasonable security to prevent the shooting death of a non-tenant inside a tenant’s apartment. The tenant opened the door and allowed the perpetrator into her apartment. The shooter was found only 7% at fault. The jury awarded $100,000,000. I’m sorry, no individual life should justify $100,000,000 unless the loss of future income of a multimillionaire or billionaire is such an amount. 

This is why I quit. Just reading about this online gives me stress. 

https://www.insurancejournal.com/app/uploads/2025/07/Campbell-jury-form.pdf

https://www.insurancejournal.com/app/uploads/2025/07/Campbell-complaint.pdf

The American Dream 100 Years Ago- My Paternal Grandparents

 

This is a picture of my paternal grandfather, French Lawrence Copeland and his bride,Blanche Vivian Noon Copeland in the mid 1920s. They loved and lived in Posey County, Indiana at a time when the improvements of the 20th Century had not expanded to their rural community. Yes, one can tell by the photograph that this was a couple in love ready to take on the world.

Yet, as life often does, life interfered. My grandmother died just after childbirth at the age of 28 leaving a grieving husband and 3/confused young children, including my 4 year old father.

There was no ‘safety net’ of state or federal dollars to supplement it n come or pay for supplemental nutrition assistance. But, my family did not starve or claim they deserved to be supported by the state or federal government. Instead, family and community came  together.

During the dust bowl, relatives from Canada and across the USA descended on my grandfather’s farm to seek refuge. 

Despite his grief, his efforts to maintain the farm, his family and tach school, he welcomed the extended family. They lived in the smoke house, the chicken house, the wash house and the barn. And guess what? They never demanded that the federal government owed them anything. They understood the concept of  self reliance and support of family. 

That was the best of America. 

Americans Are Not Racist or Heartless/ Ignore the Media

 This is me, Vivian Harrington, in Tay Ninh, South Vietnam, the week Bill Clinton was first elected President of the USA. At the time, I was living in Hong Kong as an American expatriate. As an aside, Americans living outside the USA tend to wear their patriotism proudly.

In retrospect, despite his sexual peccadillos and likely criminal activity, Bill Clinton was a decent president. In any event, despite political differences, few overseas Americans denigrated Clinton. He was, after all, our commander in chief.

During my 5 1/2 years as an expat in Asia, I learned to appreciate the freedoms and blessings of the land of my birth, the home of the free, the place where the Constitution preserved certain inalienable rights. 

I experienced martial law, treason for supporting an outlawed political party, the prohibition of importing goods that originated in certain countries or under particular regimes. Protectionism caused the price of frozen turkeys to escalate to support local chicken farmers. Embargoes limited imports. We checked expiration dates, boiled rice and pasta to skim the insects off the top and kept flour in the freezer to keep bugs from hatching.

We boiled water for drinking and brushing our teeth, rinsed the night soil off of produce with chlorine and drank beer at restaurants because water wasn’t  safe. We tested the beer with wooden chopsticks to determine if formaldehyde poisoned the brew.

But, the experience overall was golden. The photo above shows me with a group of Vietnamese children who welcomed me, embraced me, led up the path of Black Lady Mountain, told me which beggars to support, brought me to a Buddhist nun at the top of the climb, shared the joy of childhood in a place that had been overlooked for decades, and reminded me of the universal need to connect with others.

This is what makes America great, our openness, our generosity, our belief in the goodness of humankind. 

We are not the evildoers that the left projects. We believe in truth, justice, fairness, equality and the ability to overcome challenges with strength of spirit.

We do not believe in equal outcomes. We believe in equal opportunity. We believe that those who work hard deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labors. And, most of us have no envy or jealousy towards those who succeed. Instead, we wish we had the creativity to market a pet rock, or Cabbage Patch Dolls, or personal computers or electric cars or used books from a garage that became Amazon. That is the American spirit.

God Bless the USA.

Celebrate Independence Day — Accept That Americans are Generous People

 

A couple of weeks ago I met my friend and mentor, Dana Rose, for tea at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC. We were celebrating my retirement from Chubb Ltd. Dana had hired me in February 2002. I accepted the job at Chubb because of Dana. I’ve told everyone at Chubb that I joined the company because of my respect for Dana. We celebrated the fact that over 231/2 years, we maintained our mutual admiration, appreciation, respect, and friendship from the first day to the last day. 

Dana represented and continues to represent the best of the best of corporate America. She brought me into a company that changed, not necessarily for the better over 23 1/2 years. But, I stayed for the people. Dana Rose. Marsha Reid-Clarke, Paul  Berardinelli, my friend Dave Wilson, and those who mentored me, supported me, let me vent, gave me agency, and let me be the consummate professional I knew I could be.

Yes, I’ve retired effective May 9th; but I will always treasure those who gave me the wings to fly. Thank you!

A Return To Common Sense- Celebrate Riley Gaines! UPA Capitulates

 In today’s modern world, few young women have the  guts and wherewithal to fight city hall over heinous disregard of human rights. But Riley Gaines has become the face of enforcing Title IX in women’s sports at public universities.

Finally, the University of Pennsylvania has capitulated to the pressure from the federal government to admit that biological males should not be able to compete in women’s sports. UPA is apologizing to women on the swim team who lost opportunities when the school decided that trans athletes such as Lia Thomas, an unsuccessful male swimmer, should be welcomed on the women’s swim team. This essentially removed talented women from competition in the effort to promote woke ideology. 

 Biology is a real factor in strength and endurance. Notwithstanding the fact that I believe any human can live their lives as they see fit, biological males have an unfair advantage physically versus biological women. Gender may be fluid. Sex is not.

Riley Gaines stood up to the progressives who cannot conceive any truth but their own skewed ideology. Riley is a 21st century heroine for women. 

I came of age during the early years of the women’s rights movement. 50 years ago a woman could not get a home mortgage, a car loan or a credit card without a man co-signer.  As a young woman, I was a quota hire at my first adult job. It really annoyed me. I wanted to be the best, not a token.

It is disappointing to me that here we are, 50 years later, still trying to defend the rights of young women on college campuses. Where is the outrage? 

Who would have suspected that Donald Trump would be the savior of feminism? But, it turns out that he is the supporter of the marginalized in  America. Women. People of color. Jews. Working class. Just…wow!