The return of contingent commissions to the insurance brokerage business has provided one company with an opening to differentiate itself – by not accepting them.

Insurance brokers are middlemen between insurance companies and insurance buyers. They’re supposed to act in the interest of the buyer, but they can receive “contingent” commissions by steering a certain amount of business to the companies.

The practice was banned five years ago after an assault led by Eliot Spitzer, riding high at the time as New York’s attorney general and the “sheriff of Wall Street.”

But now the practice has returned from the dead, and two top players – Aon and Marsh & McLennan – are taking steps to return to it.

That gives another company, Willis, an opening to differentiate itself by advertising that it refuses to sully itself with such a conflict of interest. As other companies made clear that they were moving back to accepting the payments, Willis fired off a press release blasting the practice.

“Clients` best interests are served when their brokers work for them, and only them, with standards of service based on ethics and integrity, not merely on what`s legally permissible, Willis said.

Willis even has a website, www.clientsbeforecontingents.com, that promises “to give you a voice and a platform to take a stand against contingent commissions.”

As Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Clifford Gallant put it, “They are putting themselves (forward) as a company that is a little different and that is serving the customers’ needs and only the customers’ needs.”

The return of contingent commissions to the insurance brokerage business has provided one company with an opening to differentiate itself – by not accepting them.

Insurance brokers are middlemen between insurance companies and insurance buyers. They’re supposed to act in the interest of the buyer, but they can receive “contingent” commissions by steering a certain amount of business to the companies.

The practice was banned five years ago after an assault led by Eliot Spitzer, riding high at the time as New York’s attorney general and the “sheriff of Wall Street.”

But now the practice has returned from the dead, and two top players – Aon and Marsh & McLennan – are taking steps to return to it.

That gives another company, Willis, an opening to differentiate itself by advertising that it refuses to sully itself with such a conflict of interest. As other companies made clear that they were moving back to accepting the payments, Willis fired off a press release blasting the practice.

“Clients` best interests are served when their brokers work for them, and only them, with standards of service based on ethics and integrity, not merely on what`s legally permissible, Willis said.

Willis even has a website, www.clientsbeforecontingents.com, that promises “to give you a voice and a platform to take a stand against contingent commissions.”

As Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Clifford Gallant put it, “They are putting themselves (forward) as a company that is a little different and that is serving the customers’ needs and only the customers’ needs.”

A fairly unheralded 44-year-old Chinese-American hedge fund manager, with a strong background as a human rights activist, has become a leading candidate to replace Warren Buffett, should he retire as founder and CEO of the $100-billion Berkshire Hathaway fund, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Li Lu, who was a student leader during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, is the first person to be identified to potentially replace the soon to be 80-year-old Buffett, in what the WSJ story said is “among the most high-profile succession stories in modern corporate history.”

Buffett told the WSJ his retirement plans are not imminent and his job would likely be split after he leaves the company into separate CEO and investing functions. The WSJ story revealed David Sokol, the current chairman of Berkshire unit MidAmerican Energy Holdings, is considered the top contender for Buffett’s CEO role, while Li would potentially serve as one of Berkshire’s top fund managers.

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Recently Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told ABC News’s Diane Sawyer he would only consider an IPO “when it makes sense,” but now Bloomberg, “citing three people familiar with the matter,” reports that may not be until 2012.

The postponement would give Zuckerberg more time to increase users – Facebook just surpassed the 500 million mark – and boost sales which could double to at least $1.4 billion in 2010, according to the sources quoted by Bloomberg.

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After dragging out the drama for months, the Walt Disney Co. has finally agreed to sell its stake in Miramax film studio for more than $660 million to Filmyard Holdings LLC, according to Reuters.

The sale includes rights in more than 700 movie titles, including Academy Award winners such as “Chicago,” and “Shakespeare in Love,” Disney told Reuters.

“It turns the page on Disney’s foray into non-Disney branded films and completes their focus on franchise properties,” Gabelli & Co analyst Chris Marangi told Reuters.

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After Tomkins shareholder Standard Life last week objected to a buyout attempt for the UK autoparts maker by a joint bid orchestrated by U.S. private equity firm Onex and the Canada Pension Plan, ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s have put Tomkins on credit watch.

The ratings agencies are apparently concerned by the amount of debt involved in the $4.4-billion take-private bid, which was backed by the Tomkins board earlier this week.

German automaker Volkswagen has revealed it has amassed a $20-billion war chest it intends to use to finance its ambitious Strategy 2018, VW finance chief Hans Dieter Poetsch told Reuters.

Analysts expect the majority of VW’s cash reserve to be used to bid for the 70 percent of German truckmaker MAN it does not already own and to possibly buy the Porsche AG sports car business and Austria’s Porsche Holding. Even with those three purchases, VW would still have money left over.

Bernstein analyst Max Warburton told Reuters the $22.9 billion cash pile Poetsch claimed the company has accrued is “a ridiculous level of liquidity” unless VW aimed to top up its underfunded pensions or pursue M&A plans.

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Rental car rivals Avis and Hertz were also kicking the tires on their respective takeover bids for the Dollar Thrifty Rental Group, according to New York Times DealBook blog contributor Stephen Davidoff. The latest news had Avis Budget Group matching Hertz’s initial takeover offer with their own with Avis CEO Ronald L. Nelson submitting a letter to the Dollar Thrifty board requesting  “removing the matching rights, eliminating the break-up fees, and increasing the commitment to secure antitrust approvals” in any future Hertz bid.

Davidoff argues the motivation behind the unusual Avis request signifies “it fears being stuck in a never-ending bidding war in which Hertz is able to outbid the company by one penny every time, safe in the assumption that Hertz still can pocket the termination fee even if it loses.”

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A day after the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill that would legalize and regulate Internet gambling, a couple of overseas gaming companies announced a merger that will make them the single largest listed player in the space. The reverse takeover of Austria’s bwin by Britain’s PartyGaming would create a $3.3-billion online gaming Goliath and position the united entity to take full advantage of the deregulated U.S. market.

“With market-leading positions in poker, sports betting, casino and games — in particular bingo — the enlarged group will have a winning formula to exploit the growing online gaming market,” PartyGaming CEO Jim Ryan told Reuters.

Photo credit: A Volkswagen logo sign is seen next to the grill of a 2009 GTI automobile inside the lobby of the U.S. headquarters building of Volkswagen Group of America in Herndon, Virginia, September 18, 2008. REUTERS/Larry Downing