NCCI Sold Out Symposium 2017: CEO Looks Toward the Future

Orlando, FL (WorkersCompensation.com) - For the first time ever, the Annual Insurance Symposium (AIS) sold out this year.

The annual event, hosted by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), was titled AIS — The System @ Work, and was set in Orlando, FL. “We actually had to close registration,” NCCI Marketing Communications Manager Dean Dimke said. “We had over 900 people attend the event and it was extremely well-received.”

Every year, NCCI focuses on a word that the organization will attempt to abide to until attendees gather again the next year. This year’s word was “adapting,” according to CEO Bill Donnell.

“This year’s word, ‘adapting,’ was to describe the path forward. Our CEO picked a word to describe a path forward to remain relevant and be successful. Moving forward and of course, we are in a time of great change because of technology and other disruptives,” Dimke told WorkersCompensation.com on Monday.

“To expand on the value we deliver, we are in the process of undertaking new research to even further benefit our stakeholders," Donnell said last week to almost one thousand attendees, including Lesley Stahl, broadcast journalist and co-editor of ‘60 Minutes’,” according to a NCCI press release.

While talking about the future, Donnell also detailed the numbers that matter most — like the preliminary 2016 pre-tax operating gain percentage of 18 percent. Along with other important takeaways, Donnell rated being “real-time relevant" as a leading factor.

Being “real-time relevant” means to simply keep doing what the almost century-old organization has been doing since 1923 — changing with the times, Dimke said.

“The industry has adapted to changes before. One of which is all the work that has gone into to implementing safety initiatives (over) many decades,” Dimke said.

NCCI’s past successes will create future frontiers as usual, explained Dimke, noting Donnell used NCCI’s change through the once-booming-but-now-declined age of agriculture and manufacturing as an example. “Most recently manufacturing has been dropping off, but service jobs are coming up,” he said.  

After the CEO presented about the successes of 2016, Kathy Antonello, NCCI's chief actuary, continued the symposium by presenting the “2017 State of the Line Guide.”

"The workers’ compensation underwriting results for 2016 were very strong, especially relative to other property and casualty lines of business," Antonello said in a press release, adding, “this is the second consecutive year the industry has posted a six-point underwriting gain.”

The actuary said less regularity “paired with increases in indemnity and medical severity,” and with “historically low interest rates, the industry seems to be responding with diligence on the underwriting side."

Dimke provided specific market indicators and trends highlighted in NCCI’s “2017 State of the Line Guide:”

• The overall reserve position for private carriers improved in 2016. NCCI estimates the year-end 2016 reserve position to be a $5 billion deficiency — down from $7 billion in 2015. Estimated reserve redundancy in Accident Year 2016 contributed to this reduction. 

• Average lost-time claim frequency across NCCI states declined by 4% in 2016, on a preliminary basis.

• In NCCI states, the preliminary Accident Year 2016 average indemnity claim severity increased by 3% relative to the corresponding 2015 value. For medical, the preliminary average lost-time claim severity increased by 5% relative to that observed in 2015.

• The workers’ compensation Residual Market Pool premium volume remained flat between 2015 and 2016, and the average residual market share remained stable at 8%. The latest NCCI data shows that total residual market premium declined in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the first quarter of 2016.

The Guide also showed that the whole market net written premium volume continued stable between fiscal years 2015 and 2016 at $45.5 billion. Things look bright, according to the Donnell.

“He talked about how we adapt no matter what the new jobs (look) like, as long as we continue to adapt to meet the needs of workers and employers, we will have a bright future,” Dimke said of the CEO’s vision.

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