"Nobody is doing any business, but there is just not that much business to do," one corporate finance specialist said.

Corporate finance specialists see insurance as one of the few growth areas in Europe in the short and medium term.

"For better or worse, Salomon is always reluctant to take a hit," one corporate finance specialist said.

"With long rates through 8 percent, we thought we would be going crazy," one corporate finance specialist said.

He joined Humana in 1974 as a finance specialist.

Another role for the finance specialist in relation to strategy has to do with the cost of funds.

There is also a role for the finance specialists in trying to test relationships between strategic data and corporate performance.

In 1998 he was elected into the lower house of parliament for the PvdA as finance specialist.

It's all done with mirrors - accounting "acrobatics," as one corporate finance specialist put it.

Some advisers, particularly corporate finance specialists and business brokers, are prepared to negotiate a success fee as part of their payment.