Palm have been featured in top business magazine Forbes.

The story, which was included in the magazine's April 25 "Forbes 500s'' issue -- although the company is not that big yet -- tells how Mr. Gluckstern and Mr. Palm, colleagues from the International School in Tehran, developed the concept of finite risk insurance and turned it into a massive successful insurance business.

It also reveals how Mr. Gluckstern was selected to run Berkshire Hathaway's reinsurance operations in 1986 and then, with Mr. Palm, tried to convince Berkshire Hathaway to take up the concept.

After the company, run by legendary investor Mr. Warren Buffett, rejected the idea, the pair quit and sought private financing for the idea in 1987, Forbes said.

"The 1987 market crash dashed their hopes of raising enough money through a private equity placement,'' the story said. "That's when Rolf Huppi, president of $51 billion (assets) Zurich Insurance Co. heard about the idea.

He offered $100 million of Zurich money in return for voting control of a new company; other investors put in $150 million.

"Centre Re was born in 1988. `People asked why I was investing with guys with so little experience,' recounts Huppi. `The answer is easy: Nobody in the insurance business explained the issues and solutions as clearly as Gluckstern and Palm did.'' When Zurich bought out its partners remaining investment in Centre Re earlier this year, Kemper Corp. earned a compound annual return of 32 percent on its investment.

The story added that Mr. Gluckstern himself has stock options and appreciation rights in Centre Re worth $20 million.

The story also had a footnote: "Berkshire's National Indemnity subsidiary has become a big underwriter of finite risk insurance.''