A look at the year in risk management news.

JANUARY:

* ACE Ltd. agrees to pay $3.5 billion to buy CIGNA's Corp. domestic property/casualty operations. The deal will give ACE a large U.S. and

international platform to build on, while CIGNA sheds problems with its property/ casualty operations to focus on its large and profitable health insurance business.

* Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. announces that Jeffrey Greenberg will become chief executive officer at the end of the year and chairman of M&M, when A.J.C. Smith retires. Mr. Greenberg, who currently is chairman and CEO of Marsh & McLennan Capital Inc., came to M&M in 1995 after 17 years with American International Group Inc., where he had long been seen as heir apparent to his father, AIG Chairman and CEO Maurice R. Greenberg.

* J&H Marsh & McLennan Inc. reaches an agreement with the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. to disclose, when asked by risk managers, the fees it receives from insurance companies. The move helps end the controversy over contingent commissions that had seized the market in 1998.

FEBRUARY:

* XL Capital Ltd. merges with NAC Re Corp. for $1.2 billion, leaving the Bermuda company well positioned to expand its U.S. insurance and reinsurance businesses. NAC Re obtains the financial backing of the highly capitalized XL, allowing it to take on bigger risks and to retain more of those risks.

* Chubb Corp. offers to buy Executive Risk Inc. for $850 million. The deal, completed in August, gives Executive Risk access to Chubb's extensive distribution system and broader range of property/casualty insurance products, and allows Chubb to strengthen its position in the directors and officers liability and …