Dear friend,

Well, that’s settled then, the Elliot Richardson – Benfield/Aon saga is over.

On the face of it, it looks like a bit of a score draw.

My own highly unscientific (and probably untrustworthy) sources had been saying that Aon had offered $15m in compensation, which Benfield had rejected, seeking $50m.

So to accept around $18.5m looks like a bit of a result for Aon.

Obviously this was never going to go to court, but then again $18.5m is a heck of a lot of cash by anyone’s standards.

There’s an old Spanish saying, that presumably exists to clam the fears of expectant mothers, worried about how on earth a new young mouth is to be fed:

“A baby always comes with a loaf of bread under its arm.”

Well, it seems that high-flying brokers come with IOUs under their arms.

I’m sure Elliot is worth every penny — I interviewed him for the first issue of FAC magazine and was impressed.

But I certainly wouldn’t want to start in my new job at a global player with all of my new colleagues knowing exactly how much I had managed to knock off the P&L without even setting foot in the building!