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In This Issue
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It’s spring, which means the industry’s flurry of conferences are upon us. Earlier this month, FirstBest attended and sponsored the 2010 NCCI Annual Issues Symposium in Orlando. At the event, we hosted a popular breakfast, attended by more than forty carrier executives, partners and customers. The breakfast’s agenda primarily tackled top underwriting challenges with Workers’ Comp today. Customers, including Geoff Banta, COO of Amerisafe, engaged the room, despite the early morning time. Following a brief presentation, participants were able to voice their opinions about top issues and vote to select the question for discussion at their table. Fueled by good coffee, good food and hot-button themes, the lively table discussions focused on ways to drive market expansion, increase underwriting productivity and quality and improve service levels with agents and brokers. The discussions resulted in very interesting observations, which are now being aggregated into a short report. The report will be available to friends of FirstBest by request at www.firstbest.com/wc. At a higher level, reflecting on NCCI overall, I saw mixed forecasts for the workers’ comp market. NCCI’s Chief Actuary, Dennis Mealy, in his State of the Line presentation, stated that this year’s trends include a challenging market outlook, including:
However, despite continued economic uncertainties, a noted insurance economist offered some good news to workers’ compensation insurers. In his presentation, Insurance Information Institute President Robert Hartwig said that the recovery is self-sustaining and the property and casualty industry will see growth in 2011. He did not expect to see a “double dip” recession or a secondary spike in unemployment. Hartwig observed that, along with a recovery, the industry can expect to see an increase in demand for commercial insurance products, including workers’ comp. “The P&C insurance industry will see growth in 2011 for the first time since 2006,” he said encouragingly. Overall, NCCI was a success for all of us who made the trip to a very sunny Orlando. I observed the sector motivated to address the challenges and make the necessary strategic business changes. Did you attend NCCI? Visit our blog and share your thoughts! Best regards, John Belizaire,
Recommended Reading Commercial Market To Remain Stable, Risk Managers Challenged Knowledge-Sharing Technology Could Boost Insurance Underwriter Recruiting Carriers & Agents Don’t Agree on Business Relationship Workers’ Comp Insurers Embracing Technology to React to Market and Regulatory Challenges, Says New Novarica Sector Report 
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