Meeting Information

Monday

2:00-3:00 PM

Program Administrator Town Hall: Insurance Industry M&A and the Implications for your Business

Steve Boyd, President & COO, Arrowhead Group
Tony Campisi, President/CEO, Glatfelter Insurance Group
Kevin Donoghue, Managing Director, Mystic Capital
Tom Riley, President & COO, AssuredPartners
Miles Wuller, Chief Operating Officer, RSG Underwriting Managers

Insurance Agencies, MGAs and Program Administrators are very attractive acquisition targets due to their healthy profit margins, strong cash flow and high levels of recurring revenue. This makes these entities natural targets for Private Equity, Large Public Brokers, Private Buyers and Carriers looking to deploy capital, add products and distribution and improve their return on investment. Each of these buyer types will have a different approach and impacts on your business whether you are looking to sell or take on an investment partner.

This PA Town Hall presentation features a panel of experts representing each of these buyer types/investors to discuss their appetite, how they approach and structure their deals, their post-transaction operating structure and more. Plan to attend to learn more about the world of insurance M&A and direct your questions to the panelists.

4:00 PM

INDUSTRY SPEAKER: Inga Beale

Tuesday

10:30 AM 

Predicting Weather-Driven Impacts in the Current and Future Climate

Lloyd Treinish – IBM Distinguished Engineer
Chief Scientist – Environmental Modelling, Climate, Weather and Deep Thunder
IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center  [see full bio]

Weather profoundly affects the global economy and society. Not a week goes by when we don’t learn of such impacts. It can be wildfires in California or unusual weather like nearly 16 inches of rain in four hours in Japan last summer. Such situations stress the resiliency of the infrastructure on which our lives and livelihoods depend. For example, global losses due to weather in 2017 were estimated to be nearly $300 billion. Given the growing social unrest and economic disruption from such events, one must begin by understanding the science and what is driving what we are seeing.

Efficient, resilient, and safe operation of many cities, for instance, is dependent on local weather conditions at the scale of their critical infrastructure (electric, communications and water utilities, transportation, etc.) This includes both routine and severe events such as tropical storms, tornadoes, snowstorms, damaging winds and hail. With precipitation events, local topography and weather influence water runoff and infiltration, which directly affect flooding as well as drinking water quality and availability.

Until recently, many businesses and public institutions largely accepted weather risk as a factor that could not be mitigated. However, with the increasing skill of weather forecasts, weather risk mitigation is a reality. The initial step to address this gap is the application of state-of-the-art weather models at the spatial scale of a business operations. The results of such a model can drive predictions of business impacts. While scientific and technical challenges remain, they are sufficiently mature that they are used for operational decision making today.

Attend this presentation and learn about this science and how it can be applied in practice to address different business use cases. Also discussed will be the on-going research to further such capabilities, including how science is extending this concept to a climate scale in order to evaluate the potential localized impacts of a warming planet and the effectiveness of strategies being used to mitigate such impacts.

11:45 AM-1:30 PM

Women's Networking Lunch  [This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.]

Inga Beale

4:00-5:00 PM

The Liability Maze of Legal Marijuana – Implications for your Program

David Bradford – Advisen

Cannabis products may be legal in most states, but the liability landscape remains unsettled. Liability concerns include workplace safety, product liability, medical malpractice and other areas that can reach into many of the programs written by TMPAA members. To complicate matters, while marijuana may be legal at the state level, it is still classified under federal law as a Schedule 1 drug. For these and other reasons, insurers have been slow to respond with cannabis-related coverage.
This workshop will discuss the following:

• Future of legal marijuana in the US
• Federal vs State issues
• Identifying the multiple sources of liability
• Limitations of traditional insurance coverage
• Emerging insurance marketplace for cannabis-related coverages

Wednesday

8:30 AM

GENERAL SESSION/Panel Presentation

The Future of Risk – Emerging Challenges, Solutions and Opportunities

David Sherwood – Deloitte
Sumeet Bhatia – Zurich
Dogan Kaleli – Allianz
Ted Stuckey – QBE
Melena Ortega – Munich Re
Jeremy Hitzig (Moderator) – TMPAA Past President and Advisory Board Member

Understanding rapid changes in the current risk landscape is a critical component in an organization's strategic planning process to address new challenges for your business, but also to exploit new opportunities.

This panel discussion will provide an overview of the factors driving the future of risk as outlined in research from two recent Deloitte publications, followed by a panel discussion of Carrier representatives who focus on innovation and the development of risk solutions/risk management for emerging threats.

Expect to learn more about emerging challenges, solutions and opportunities for your program business.

10:00-11:00 AM

Canada is Open for Program Business

Gary Hirst, President & CEO, CHES Special Risk

Over 30% of P&C business in Canada is underwritten by US companies. What are the additional distribution opportunities for your program north of the border?

Come listen to Gary Hirst, Canadian MGA CEO and Membership Secretary for the Canadian Managing General Agents Association (CAMGA), describe the process and hurdles of doing business In Canada.

Attendees can expect information regarding:

• MGA Landscape in Canada
• Size of the Insurance Marketplace
• The Admitted versus E&S Market
• Major Market Segments
• Licensing Requirements
• Canadian Regulatory Environment

11:00 AM-12:00 PM

Ready-Set-Grow: Attracting, Onboarding, and Retaining Talent

Jim Robert, Best Foot 4Ward

This presentation will provide an overview of techniques and tools to build and maintain a learning culture through leadership and design.  Attendees can expect a discussion about the importance of an organization's culture of learning that attracts talent and is attractive to talent, procedures to incorporate new employees into the organization, and once onboarded, retaining them.  Attend this presentation and leave with a strategy to accomplish each of these objectives through specific programs and management guidance.