About the Editor

Joseph M. Belth, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of insurance in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University (Bloomington), editor of The Insurance Forum, and author of Life Insurance: A Consumer's Handbook. He is the author of several other books and numerous journal articles.

For one of his books Belth received the 1966 Elizur Wright award for "outstanding original contribution to the literature of insurance." For journal articles he received awards in 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1971, and 1979. He received the 1987 Financial Security Nest Egg Award from the Life Communicators Association for "professional activities in communicating to the general public." For The Insurance Forum he received the 1990 George Polk award in the "special publications" category. He received a 1999 Huebner Gold Medal from The American College "in recognition of distinguished service to education and professionalism."

Belth has received degrees from Auburn (NY) Community College (now Cayuga Community College), Syracuse University, and the University of Pennsylvania. He was a life insurance agent in Syracuse for five years in the 1950s. He is a past president of the American Risk and Insurance Association, an organization of insurance professors and others interested in insurance education. He has been a member of the Indiana University faculty since 1962.

Belth was the subject of a page-one profile in The Wall Street Journal on January 5, 1978. He was also profiled in Barron's on June 8, 1981, and in The New York Times on April 17, 1990. He is listed in Who's Who in America.