James Donelon, Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance to Speak at Annual Convention

More than 3,000 people have registered for the 2007 Annual Convention, scheduled for Oct. 3-6 in New Orleans. Programs begin Thursday morning at 10 a.m. with a welcome by James J. Donelon, Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance. His speech will be followed by the Forum entitled: Changing Markets, Changing Laws: What’s Ahead for the E & S Wholesaler? This will feature eight top executives from wholesale brokerage firms and surplus lines companies. Forum participants from NAPSLO member wholesale brokerage firms will be: Neal Abernathy, Swett & Crawford; Steve DeCarlo, AmWins Group, Inc.; Ron Gabor, Gabor Insurance Services, Inc.; and Marshall Kath, Colemont Brokerage Group.

Forum participants from NAPSLO member companies will be: Dennis Crosby, ACE Westchester Specialty; David Leonard, RSUI Group; Tom Mulligan, Western World Insurance Group; and Dale Pilkington, Colony Insurance Company.

Over the past five years the surplus lines industry has become an increasingly larger and more important part of the insurance industry. This is quite a change from the 1990s when flat markets, solvency concerns about some markets, and threatened government regulation raised an ominous specter about the future of the industry. Today the market represents nearly 15 percent of the P&C industry.
Specific topics to be discussed during the forum will be: the factors that have driven the recent growth of the surplus lines market, the impact this growth has had on the wholesale distribution system and risk taking community, regulatory compliance concerns and current federal legislative proposals including the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act.

The inclusion of this Industry Forum on Thursday morning is a departure from the traditional annual convention format in which that morning has been left completely open. This year, convention attendees will be given the opportunity to hear important leaders of our industry discuss current issues and topics and to secure perspectives and knowledge about trends that may impact their business.