This year's America's Claims Event (ACE) will open with anaddress by Scott J. Kipper, Nevada Commissioner of Insurance.

In a pre-conference interview, Kipper said he plans to talkabout how to operate in the current environment, looking from afiscal and regulatory perspective, and what it all means forclaims. “What's that old Chinese curse or blessing? 'May you livein interesting times.' With all the different dynamics right now inour regulatory world of state versus federal, the low interestenvironment, all the scrutiny on investment banks and banking,international versus domestic industry… there's just so much goingon. It's completely fascinating.”

Kipper says the state is very focused on “rates and rate making… making sure those rates are fair not discriminatory.” Nature alsopresents challenges for the state: “Nevada is facing a significantwildfire season,” he states. “We've already had two major wildfiresin the winter and we have another one in process right now.”

Kipper also plans to emphasize issues on the NationalAssociation of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) level, specifically“forced placement insurance on homes and automobiles.”

“We will also be dealing with auto insurance for low-incomeindividuals,” Kipper continues. “For instance, how do you makeinsurance for low income individuals less costly? It's likesqueezing a balloon: if you make that less costly it's going tobecome more costly for someone else. All this will trickle downinto issues around claims, as it makes companies more cognizant ofprice management.”

While much of the reform will come from the upper levels, Kippersays that claims professionals “should be aware of the issuescurrently under review.”

Kipper's keynote will also draw on his healthinsurance background and the prominent effects of fraud. Kippercited a recent report that attributed 10 percent of the cost ofinsurance premiums to fraud. “I believe that may be a little high,but it's certainly a significant contributor to the cost ofinsurance.”

Amid the uncertainty of the market and the challenges of hisposition, Kipper finds benefits as well: “The best part about thejob is the variety of the issues we deal with on literally anhourly basis. We're talking about solvency of companies topreparing legislation to dealing with surplus life insurance. It'sas varied as the day is long, and I think that's the realattractive part of it. There is no single day like any other.”

Kipper says attendees will leave his presentation with a bettergrasp of the P&C insurance market in Nevada and how to addressintertwined issues in their own roles.