2021 Annual Meeting Goes Virtual

As noted in last week’s NOLHGA Wire, NOLHGA has had to reconsider the decision to hold the 2021 Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, in light of the most recent wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. After reviewing the latest reports on the spread of the Delta variant, NOLHGA President Peter Gallanis and the NOLHGA Board of Directors have decided to move NOLHGA’s 2021 Annual Meeting to an online-only meeting. The meeting will be held on October 26 and 27, with an MPC meeting on October 25, and registration will be free. Anyone who has already registered for the meeting will receive a refund.

We regret the need to move the meeting online—like so many of you, we were looking forward to visiting Nashville and reconnecting with old friends in person. But the rising caseloads and the masking and social distancing restrictions they would have necessitated for our meetings and social events made it likely that we could not deliver the type of meeting our members have come to expect. With that in mind, the decision was made to move the meeting online.

NOLHGA will send an email next week with links to register for the online MPC meeting and Annual Meeting. As mentioned earlier, registration for the online meetings will be free. We are working with possible speakers to switch to the online format, and we hope to have preliminary agendas for both meetings posted soon.

Again, we are sorry that we will not be meeting in Nashville next month. We are hopeful that the first MPC meeting in 2022, scheduled for January 31–February 1 at the Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach in Clearwater Beach, Florida, will be a chance for all of us to reconnect in person.

If you have any questions about the 2021 Annual Meeting, please contact Sean McKenna at [email protected].

New York & Texas Appoint New Insurance Regulators

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has appointed Adrienne Harris to serve as Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services. Harris formerly served as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy under President Obama.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Cassie Brown to serve as Texas Commissioner of Insurance. Brown had been the Texas Commissioner of Workers’ Compensation since 2018; her term as Commissioner of Insurance expires on February 1, 2023.

Kansas GA Seeks New Administrator

The Kansas Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association is seeking a well-qualified candidate to fill the position of Association Administrator. The association is a nonprofit, industry-supported association that handles and pays, pursuant to state statute, insurance claims of Kansas residents if their life, health, or annuity insurer becomes insolvent.

The Administrator reports directly to the association’s Board of Directors and is responsible for carrying out the duties of the association. Ability to travel and effectively coordinate activities with other state guaranty associations through a national organization, with insurance receivers, and with regulators is essential. The candidate must possess insurance and management experience in an insurance company or related setting such as regulatory, legal, or consulting. A background in law, accounting, insurance, finance, and/or actuarial science is desirable, and prior experience with an insurance guaranty association or in a receivership setting is a plus.

Send résumés on or before September 27, 2021, to Linda Becker, with a copy to Terry Tiede.