Not long after Hurricane Katrina stormed through New Orleans this summer, Rancho Santa Fe insurance consultant Andrew (Andy) Barile flew to New York to help one of his insurance industry clients figure out how to cope with the disaster.

Katrina, combined with two other storms, turned 2005 into the worst year ever for insurance losses from catastrophic events: $40.4 billion for Katrina, $10.8 billion for Wilma and $6.4 billion for Rita, according to an estimate released last week by Advisen Ltd. And the total could go higher, because the loss reports are still coming in.

In comparison, the insured losses for the 9/11 terrorist attacks came to $35 billion.

Insurers were not prepared, Barile said.

?None of the (computerised disaster) models that the industry was using predicted that the levees would break in New Orleans,? he said. ?Of course, it?s very hard to predict every possible thing that could occur without missing something. But the levees were a big issue.?

Barile was summoned to New York to help his client, whom he described as a major reinsurance company with headquarters in Bermuda, develop a new disaster model, designed to limit the company?s losses the next time a Katrina-like storm arises.

But disaster modelling is a small part of Barile?s work as an insurance consultant.

After 45 years in the insurance industry, working as an agent, underwriter, insurer and Bermuda-based reinsurer, Barile has gained a reputation as a key adviser for a wide variety of insurance issues.

In the past two years alone, the 63-year-old has advised insurers on whether to enter the California workers? compensation market, helped businesses decide what types of insurance to buy, served as an expert witness in insurance-related court cases and consulted with law firms about the ramifications of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer?s crackdown on insurance sales practices.

?Andy?s a very knowledgeable, respected consultant in the insurance industry,? said David Kuhn, executive vice president of Balboa Countrywide Insurance Group, who has retained Barile on several projects. ?He has a lot of technical expertise and lives up to his commitments.?

Barile has been involved in the insurance industry since his teens.

The decision was sparked by watching his father ? an immigrant from Italy ? put in long hours as a truck driver.

?My father used to get up at 2 or 3 in the morning and drive his truck for the rest of the day,? Barile said. ?He worked until he dropped dead at the age of 83. I went to work with him on the truck when I was 12. Observing him at 2 a.m. was enough to give anybody a kick in the head to get into some other business.?

Shortly after graduating from high school in 1960, Barile started working in insurance, selling commercial accounts for the Commercial Union Insurance Group and several related British-owned insurance companies.

Eventually, Barile became involved in the reinsurance industry, which covers insurers for their losses. In 1977, he helped launch Howden Reinsurance Corp. for insurance wholesaler Wohlreich & Anderson, Ltd. Five years later, he founded his own insurance firm, Andrew Edwards and Co.But his most groundbreaking move as an insurer was to form ANECO Reinsurance Co., the first publicly held reinsurance firm in Bermuda.

For more than a decade, Bermuda had been a haven for so-called captive insurers, which specialise in covering the risks of their non-insurance parent companies. When Barile arrived in Bermuda in 1978, such companies as General Motors and IBM operated captive insurance operations there.

?People were attracted by the ease of being able to form a company in Bermuda without being subject to a lot of regulatory authority,? Barile said. ?The Bermuda Government was more inclined to be more receptive to people who wanted to form a company. They left you alone to set your own prices, develop your own forms and so forth.?

In 1978, the Internal Revenue Service ruled that the captives had to insure clients that were unrelated to their parent companies. Barile developed ANECO as a mechanism for helping the captives comply with the IRS requirements.

When a front-page article in The New York Times in 1978 mentioned Barile?s activities, he suddenly began fielding phone calls from companies that wanted to set up captives in Bermuda.

Barile raised $10 million in the initial public offering for his reinsurance company.

?That seemed like a lot of money to us at the time,? he said. ?But these days, there are more than a dozen billion-dollar insurance companies in Bermuda.?

Unfortunately for Barile, the reinsurance market in Bermuda looked so lucrative that some of his investors decided to buy him out in an unwanted takeover. Despite the buyout, he retains his contacts with the insurance industry in Bermuda, the world?s capital for reinsurance operations.

After selling his share in ANECO, Barile began his career as an insurance consultant.

Among other things, he has worked with insurance agents to find new markets, worked with insurance companies to develop new niches, and helped noninsurance companies establish offshore insurance operations in Bermuda and elsewhere.

During the California workers? compensation insurance crisis two years ago, for instance, Barile worked with venture capitalists who were debating whether to enter the market.

After monitoring the market for months, paying close attention to the reforms introduced by former Gov. Gray Davis and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the investors opted to stay out.

Barile said their skittishness had nothing to do with the legislative reforms that tamed the market. Instead, they were concerned about how to compete against the government-affiliated State Compensation Insurance Fund, which dominates the market.

Another line of business opened up early last year when Spitzer cracked down on alleged kickbacks, bid-rigging and conflicts of interest at several of the nation?s biggest insurance firms, including Marsh & McLennan and Aon.

Among other things, some firms were accused of providing high commissions ? which some industry critics describe as kickbacks ? to the retail insurance companies that sold their policies.

After Spitzer?s suit, several insurance regulators, including California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, launched similar probes in their states.

Barile said the problem is that the insurance industry lacks transparency. He said consumers are often unaware of the ties between insurers and brokers and are therefore unaware of hidden fees ? including commission payments ? involved in their policies.

?An insurance company can have its own retail brokerage, investment banking operation, reinsurance agency and other operations ? a lot of tentacles that can each take a fee from clients,? Barile said. ?Customers expect that their insurance brokers or agents will help them get the best policy for their needs, but the brokers often have their own agenda? ? which includes selling policies that result in the highest compensation.

Another Spitzer lawsuit ? against insurance giant AIG, which allegedly inflated its profits by shifting some losses to reinsurer General Re ? sparked more consulting for Barile, who has written two books on the issues Spitzer cited in his suit. After the suit was filed, Barile was fielding calls from lawyers from throughout the country, seeking information.

?More than 200 insurance firms were subpoenaed because they have that type of reinsurance agreement,? Barile said. ?And the cases are still being investigated, with the Securities and Exchange Commission getting involved.?

As head of the insurance committee at the Fairbanks Ranch Association, Barile has first-hand experience at trying to get the best deal possible from insurance agents.

?We work with insurance agents and brokers, but Andy reviews what they bring to the table to make sure that we get the best bang for our bucks,? said Sue Prouty, chief financial officer of the association.

Barile?s main project now is to begin a series of risk management seminars starting in March aimed at teaching business executives how to buy the best insurance for their companies.

?Andy takes a very objective approach to insurance,? said Georg Schluetter, a University of Phoenix business professor who is joining Barile in leading the seminars. ?Andy really looks at consumers and figures out what they need.?