New Orleans Marriott Site of 2003 CAS Annual Meeting

by Chad C. Wischmeyer, Member, CAS Program Planning Committee

Ease on down to the grand old city of New Orleans for the 2003 CAS Annual Meeting. The New Orleans Marriott on Canal Street, only steps away from the beautiful French Quarter, will be hosting the annual event scheduled to begin on Sunday, November 9 and conclude on Wednesday, November 12. The background of the keynote speaker, Rushworth M. Kidder, is particularly timely given the recent string of public corporate scandals. Dr. Kidder and his Institute for Global Ethics have developed ethics training programs for international corporations, nonprofits, and governmental entities. His programs show how ethics are increasingly a matter of survival.

The general sessions will spark thought and discussion related to the state of the insurance industry and the subsequent effect on the actuary. The first general session, "Underwriting Cycles—Are They Inevitable?" will offer a round table discussion on the past, current, and future state of the insurance world, comparing and contrasting today's hard market and the underwriting cycles of the past. The second general session, "Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Actuary," will be a round table discussion addressing how the Act has affected the actuarial profession in its relationship with insurance companies, audit firms, and nonaudit consulting firms. In the third general session, "Insurer Failures—Does the Past Teach Anything?" panelists will discuss the climbing number of insurance company insolvencies, traditional coping mechanisms, and emerging diagnostics that can lead to preventative action.

The concurrent sessions provide a diverse program designed to offer topics of interest to actuaries with either personal or commercial lines concentration. General insurance industry topics include professionalism and actuarial limits of liability, capital movement, insurance company liquidity, fair value accounting, pricing for extreme events, DFA success story, and actuarial techniques in nontraditional areas. Personal lines topics include homeowners profitability, Texas homeowners, no-fault—then and now, and neck injuries/side impact collisions. For attendees with a commercial lines focus, session topics include medical malpractice, nursing home liability, commercial lines underwriting, California workers compensation, and captive insurance companies.

Members and their guests are invited to attend the Tuesday evening dinner with a Mardi Gras theme at the hotel.

Further detailed information will be mailed to members soon. Please check back periodically for updates.