Welcome to the 2002 CAS Spring Meeting

The 2002 Spring Meeting of the Casualty Actuarial Society will be held May 19-22 at the historic Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California. This meeting will give actuaries an opportunity to learn about current developments affecting the insurance industry and our actuarial profession as well as a chance to interact with other actuaries from around the globe.

The featured speaker is James Glassman, a financial columnist for The Washington Post and coauthor of the book Dow 36,000. Mr. Glassman has offered his insights on global trends and the future of finance to national audiences via print and television media. He is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and hosts TechCentralStation.com, a Web site exploring finance and technology.

Four timely and interesting general sessions will anchor our Spring Meeting program.

• "Dealing With Terrorism: Next Steps?" considers the issues, and the strategic responses of insurers and regulators, with respect to the possibility of future terrorist events.
• "Enterprise Risk Management and Disaster Recovery" discusses issues associated with these emerging disciplines, along with what we have learned from the responses of disaster recovery plans to recent catastrophic events.
• "Can We Talk?" takes us on a satirical journey through a day in the life of a "communications-challenged" actuary. Three tongue-in-cheek documentaries shed some light on how actuaries are perceived by others.
• "Market Cycle Update" examines changing insurance market conditions, and looks ahead toward possible future market movements.

This meeting will also feature a discussion paper program focussing on "The Changing Insurance Market." Planned concurrent session topics include ratemaking in a harder market, issues in credit ratemaking, medical malpractice, catastrophe modeling, mold issues, fraud, new capital flowing into Bermuda, risk and return, capital allocation, asset-liability management, risk retention and captives, dealing with the media, using expert claims systems and reserving issues, and diversity. A limited attendance session entitled "How to Talk so People Will Listen" will also be offered.

The Monday tour for accompanying guests will include a look behind the scenes at the world-famous San Diego Zoo. Tuesday evening's event will be a "patriotic theme" party at the resort.

A meeting registration form, as well as descriptions of the planned sessions are included in this preliminary program. On-line meeting registration is also available. Please note the CAS registration fee will be refunded for cancellations received in writing on or before May 10, less a $50 processing fee. The registration fee will increase after May 3. Since the hotel cut-off date is April 18, we suggest that you make your hotel reservation as soon as possible. Information regarding the airline and car rental discounts is also included.

Sincerely,

Christopher S. Carlson
Vice President
Programs and Communications