Bestselling Author Ann Patchett To Speak at 2024 Annual Meeting

Bestselling author and Nashville native Ann Patchett will speak at NOLHGA’s 2024 Annual Meeting, which will be held at the JW Marriott Nashville on October 8–9, with an MPC meeting on October 7. In a change from past Annual Meetings, she will speak at the MPC luncheon on Monday, October 7, rather than immediately before the First General Session of the Annual Meeting on October 8.

Patchett has written 13 books and has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including England’s Orange Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her novel Bel Canto was awarded the Orange Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. In 2016 she released Commonwealth, which was selected as a New York Times Best Book of the Year, a TIME Magazine Top 10 Selection, and a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist. In 2019, she published her first children’s book, Lambslide (illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser,), as well as a novel, The Dutch House, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and has sold more than 1 million copies. Her latest book, These Precious Days: Essays, is a deeply personal collection that reflects on home, family, friendships, and writing.

Patchett is the owner of Nashville’s Parnassus Books and a spokesperson for independent booksellers. In 2012, TIME named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World for her efforts on behalf of the literary community.

More information about the program for the 2024 Annual Meeting will appear in the coming months, but please mark your calendars—especially for our October 7 luncheon!

  Staff Contact - Sean McKenna

MPC Meets in Denver

The Members’ Participation Council (MPC) held a meeting on April 18–19, 2024, in Denver and online. The MPC General Session featured:

• The MPC Chair Report, in which MPC Chair Margaret Sperry (Rhode Island) reported on upcoming educational sessions and recent updates to the rosters of several NOLHGA committees and MPC subgroups.
  
• The NOLHGA Management Report, in which NOLHGA President Katie Wade reported on recent activity at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and the NAIC as well as a panel on guaranty association issues at the recent meeting of the International Association of Insurance Receivers (IAIR).
  
• An update on the activities of the Security Advisory Committee (SAC) by Co-Chair Candie Kinch (Idaho, Oregon, and Wyoming).
  
• The annual update on the operations of Guaranty Association Benefits Company (GABC), which administers the policies from the Executive Life of New York (ELNY) liquidation, by ELNY Task Force Chair John Colpean (Michigan) and Task Force Legal Counsel Kevin Griffith (Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath).
  
• Closed-session (affected guaranty associations only) presentations by the task forces for Global Bankers Insurance Group (North Carolina), North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company (North Carolina), Penn Treaty Network America/American Network Insurance Companies (Pennsylvania), and Senior Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania (SHIP).

The MPC meeting also featured:

• A meeting of the MPC Executive Committee.
  
• Running the Numbers: GA Financials, Proof of Claims & Solvency Regulation of Insurers, a joint presentation by the Administrators Education Steering Committee and Accounting Issues Committee, conducted by moderator and Accounting Issues Committee Chair Barry Miller (Delaware), Michael O’Day (Washington), Don Sirois (Maine), and Keith Sheridan (NOLHGA).
  
• An interview with former Utah guaranty association Executive Director Art Dummer on receivership and insolvency issues, conducted by John Colpean (Michigan).
  
• The AINIC Receivership—Reliable Data, New Members, LTC Assessments & More, a presentation on the unique aspects of the American Independent Network Insurance Company (New York) liquidation, conducted by moderator Charles Gullickson (South Dakota), Alison Kelly (Mutual of America Life Insurance Company), Alan Shortell (Life & Health Insurance Company Guaranty Corporation of New York), and Keith Sheridan (NOLHGA).
  
• A community service event to prepare meals for a local food bank. More than 50 meeting attendees participated.

  Staff Contact - Sean McKenna

Boles Awarded IAIR’s Distinguished Service Award

Bart Boles, Executive Director of the Texas Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association, was presented with the International Association of Insurance Receivers (IAIR) Distinguished Service Award on April 11, 2024, at IAIR’s Resolution Workshop in New Orleans. The award is presented annually to an IAIR member who exhibits characteristics consistent with IAIR’s Mission and Code of Ethics. The award stated that Boles’s “commitment to the mission of insolvency resolution and safeguarding policyholders is unwavering,” adding that Boles “stands as a pillar of support for IAIR and the receivership community.”

Boles, who has been an IAIR member for more than 20 years, is a former IAIR President (2013–2015) and currently serves on the organization’s Board of Directors. He is joined on the Board by fellow life and health insurance guaranty association members Frank Knighton Jr. (Georgia) and Tamara Kopp (Missouri). In addition, many life and health insurance guaranty association administrators and NOLHGA staff are active IAIR members. If anyone has questions about IAIR membership, please feel free to contact Bart, Frank, or Tamara.

  Staff Contact - Sean McKenna