NU Online News Service, Oct. 12, 12:54 p.m.EDT

Efforts to create a regional meeting format for captiveinsurance companies is seeing results with Arizona and Utahagreeing to form the Western Region Captive Insurance Conference(WRCIC) for 2010.

Joel Chansky, actuarial consultant, Milliman Inc., and LeeFilener, assistant vice president, Marsh, are 2010 co-chairs of theArizona Captive Insurance Association (AzCIA). In their conferencecommittee report, they noted the necessary agreements are beingcirculated for signature and that Arizona and Utah have verballycommitted to a joint conference.

The first regional conference is scheduled for April 5-8, 2010at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, the report said.

At this point, according to the report, the captive domiciles ofHawaii, Montana and Nevada have opted to "go it on their own, but,hopefully, will join in the regional event sometime in thefuture."

Mr. Chansky told NU Online News Service that some of thedomiciles, already making plans for an upcoming conference, felt2010 was too early to commit to.

He said he believes one conference would attract a larger numberof attendees and service providers. "One and one equalsthree--where you used to get 100 attendees to each meeting, if youglue two of them together you might get 300."

He added, "I think service providers would like it. And as itkeeps building and building it will become more popular."

He noted that certain issues affect all domiciles in the UnitedStates, such as federal taxes and regulation, which could beaddressed to all attendees. Individual domicile issues could bediscussed in breakout sessions.

Attendance at the Vermont Captive Insurance Association annualconference in August was down 18 percent, the reportsaid--emphasizing the need for a single, joint conference for theWestern U.S.

The conference co-chairs asked for volunteers and ideas forpresentations and to help organize and execute the conference.