IASA 2011: Roundtables Targeted Toward Chief Investment, Operations Officers

The 2011 IASA Conference features one roundtable that has been a perennial favorite and one that is a new offering. Yet both have a common goal: helping senior executives raise their game by sharing practical insights across a number of high-priority topics.

“We’re focused on how people work in the real world. It’s not theoretical discussion, and our objective is that the participants will return to their companies and, quite simply, do at least one or two things differently” says Chris Anderson, CFA, Anderson Insights LLP. Anderson coordinates the Chief Investment Officer Roundtable, which returns to IASA this year.

This year’s new roundtable for COOs opens the popular sessions to a new audience. “The COO Roundtable allows us the opportunity to discuss topics that bridge different parts of the insurance organization,” says Rod Travers, executive vice president, Robert E. Nolan Company and session coordinator.

Investment Officers

Content of the Chief Investment Officer Roundtable is selected based on the ratings of former attendees and outreach to a wide range of investment officers to ensure the program meets the needs of busy executives. The result this year is a slate of five informative sessions, the first of which is an economic outlook for the insurance industry.

Led by Bryan Jordan, CFA, chief economist and director of markets analysis at Nationwide Investments, the session will look at developments that are most relevant to the insurance industry and investment officers. An insurance company economist himself, Jordan has a keen understanding of the elements of the economy that have the greatest potential impact on insurers, making his comments and outlook relevant to the CIOs who participate as the roundtable begins.

Following that session is a panel discussion that will explore how insurers are deciding whether to handle investments internally or externally. “There are advantages and disadvantages to either approach,” says Anderson. “We want to have a frank and full discussion about those plusses and minuses and explore how insurers are creating successful strategies using either approach, or in combination, based on real experience.”

Panel members include Jerry Hitpas, CFA, senior vice president and Chief Investment Officer, Trustmark Insurance, and Robert Mucci, CFA, senior vice president, treasurer and Chief Investment Officer, NGL Insurance Group.

The next presentation covers the “smorgasbord” of investment strategies and options for insurers, focusing on alternative investments. Joel Cramer, CFA, director of sales and marketing, AAM; Greg Curran, CFA, vice president of business development, AAM; and Marc Tourville, CFA, CIPM, Cardinal Investments will provide a balanced perspective.

“People throw the term ‘alternative investments’ around all over the place, but what do they really mean? We want to not just explore what is practical for insurers, but look at the full range of alternatives so that people can get an appreciation for the real diversity in the marketplace,” Anderson says.

This discussion will lead into a detailed examination of one specific type of alternative investments: high-yield bonds, led by Sean M. Slein, CFA, senior portfolio manager of high-yield corporate bonds, Dwight Asset Management. These complex asset types require a thorough understanding of the risks involved and the willingness to commit the resources to manage those risks. This session will examine those issues and explore how to use high-yield bonds to bolster overall investment results.

The Chief Investment Officer Roundtable’s final session will be moderated by Frank Conde, CFA, Chief Investment Strategist at Prime Advisors Inc. Conde will close the loop on the days’ discussion by bringing back all the day’s presenters for an interactive dialog with the audience.

COO Roundtable

The objective of the COO Roundtable is to explore topics that cross a broad range of operational areas. “COOs across different organizations have very different responsibilities,” Travers explains. “Therefore, in creating the agenda for this roundtable, we took license to address many areas that will draw a diverse audience.”

The first of those areas involves operations effectiveness, focusing on how insurers can achieve the difficult combination of performance improvement and cost reduction. Presenting are Chuck Shields, executive vice president and COO, Aflac Group; Rob Robison, senior vice president, life and loan operations, Alfa Life Insurance Corporation; and Ross Orrett, president and CEO, Camilion.

“Our presenters will focus on proven techniques, such as process modeling, re-engineering, value analysis, lean, and Six Sigma,” Travers says. “These experts have demonstrated the ability to use and internalize those techniques and to make operational improvement a continual process of refinement.”

The second session focuses on the procurement function. Across the insurance industry, procurement functions have gained importance as a way to bring consistency and specialized skills to the buying process. However, this development is not without a potential downside.

“We are finding that some procurement functions aren’t really living up to expectations,” Travers says. “They end up focusing energy on ‘following the checklist’ and getting the lowest price, rather than finding the right solution and focusing on overall value. Compounding this, procurement personnel are put in an awkward spot when they are unfamiliar with the specialized solutions and services they are being asked to acquire.”

Session panelists include Susan B Miller, director - IT strategic vendor management, Humana; Craig Loughrige, senior consultant and procurement architect, Robert E Nolan Company; and Linde Hartley, executive vice president and COO, iWorks Financials. Robert Buerhle of Agile Technologies will moderate.

A session on delivering seamless service, led by Doug Smith, vice president, Unum, provides real-world examples of how to elevate the importance of service and cause it to permeate the enterprise. Thanks to their experience with other financial services sectors, online retailers, and other businesses, customers today have an increased expectation of fast, accurate, and personalized service from their insurers. As a result, the need for cross-enterprise integration—encompassing contact centers, systems, processes, skills, culture, and more—has never been higher.

Finally, the roundtable will close with a forum of COOs discussing select topics, including some of the most important issues that arose in the day’s sessions. This interactive session is moderated by Steve Boyd, president, Arrowhead General Insurance Agency, and features Lynn Neville, COO, Everest Insurance; Mike Intrieri, COO and executive vice president, Catholic Mutual Group; and William T. Budde, vice president of client service and solutions, Instec.

“Everything is fair game—the evolving role of the COO, the working relationship of CIOs with COOs, managing with analytics, and expense management, to name a few—any topic that is top-of-mind for today’s insurance COO,” Travers says. “We want to provide the audience with a meaningful, interactive closing session that provides takeaways they can use immediately and that will create lively discussion in the networking reception that immediately follows the COO Roundtable.” K