Annual Meeting Web Page Updated

A revised schedule for “The Direction of Change,” NOLHGA’s 19th Annual Meeting, has been posted on the meeting Web page. The schedule, which is in PDF format, reflects the recent addition of John Barrett—incoming chairman of the ACLI and chairman, president, and CEO of Western & Southern Financial Group—to the Annual Meeting speaker line-up.

NOLHGA’s 19th Annual Meeting will be held October 31 and November 1, 2002, at the Monarch Hotel in Washington, D.C.; an MPC meeting will take place October 30. To register for both meetings, visit the meeting Web page and click on “Registration.” Once there, fill out the registration form, print it, and mail the form to NOLHGA with your registration fee. The deadline for both meeting registration and hotel reservations is October 8.

If you have any questions about meeting registration, please contact De Gadd at 703.787.4121 or [email protected].

  Staff Contact - De Gadd Summit National Life Insurance Company (Pa.)/EBL Life Insurance Company (Pa.)

Proof of Claim Information Due October 11

Guaranty association administrators will be receiving an e-mail in the near future from Gus Estrada requesting updated proof of claim expense/claim information. Guaranty associations should submit inception-to-date amounts as of June 30, 2002; the deadline for submission is October 11, 2002. The proof of claim system on the NOLHGA Web site should be used to submit claims.

We request your prompt response, as the Pennsylvania receiver will be evaluating final claim amounts in order to close the Summit and EBL estates.

Task Force Chair - Tad Rhodes;   Staff Contact - Paul Peterson

Thoughts on the Anniversary of the September 11 Attacks

While we have all been absorbed in recent months by dramatic events in the economy and in our businesses, and some of us by personal developments, joyous or tragic, we seem to be dealing with those issues from an emotional, or even spiritual, perspective that is different from what it was before the slaughter of innocents a year ago.

The insurance industry in particular lost a lot of wonderful people in the World Trade Center attacks. The victims of that tragedy were not just American, but also British, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Canadian, and people of other nationalities. In a larger sense, it was a world tragedy—a crime against peace.

The Judeo/Christian faiths, like many others, teach that it is not man’s part to fathom the reasons why God causes or permits things to happen. Our part is to ask for knowledge of His will for us and the strength and courage to carry that out.

After those horrifying events, all of us gave more thought than we might have done before to what really matters in our lives. Personally, I recalled the words of a sports hero, Walter Payton, who used to say, “Nothing is promised to us.” How true that proved even in his own short life.

September 11 caused many of us to reevaluate our priorities, and we attached a new, higher significance to faith, family, friends, and our adherence to our personal concepts, religious or moral, concerning what it means to be a good person.

If there is anything positive that has evolved from that tragedy, perhaps it is that so many of us now ascribe so much more importance to how well we deal with the people in our lives, and what we do for the communities to which we belong. That development is a legacy of the September 11 victims that we should nurture and foster forever.

Peter G. Gallanis, NOLHGA President

  Staff Contact - Sean McKenna