ARLINGTON, VA – The recent financial crisis and its impact on the insurance industry will be the focus of discussions during the Annual Meeting of the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS), November 16-19, 2008 at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel and Towers in Seattle, Washington.

The meeting provides a forum for actuaries and other insurance professionals to stay abreast of current issues affecting the actuarial profession, as well as opportunities to interact with other actuaries from around the globe.

Four general sessions are planned:

• Understanding Capital and When You Really Need It—Lessons Learned or Not Learned from Subprime will explore the recent financial crisis and the effects on the insurance industry.  A panel of industry experts will address questions such as “What have we learned from the credit crunch, and are there other, similar types of problems lurking in the insurance industry?”
• Case Studies in ERM will discuss the state of ERM in the insurance industry, including two case studies of ERM implementations.
• Predictive Models, Innovation, and Regulation: Markets Constrained will examine the tensions that arise between the new pricing innovations and regulation.
• Surveys of Reserving Methods will unveil the results of the CAS Committee on Reserves’ recently completed survey of reserving methods in use in North America, and compare the results to similar surveys conducted in the United Kingdom and Australia.

In addition to the general sessions, over 30 concurrent sessions will be offered addressing topics such as auto frequency, California and New York workers compensation, claim fraud modeling, emerging exposures, insurance regulation, mergers and acquisitions, mortgage insurance, and medical malpractice claim frequency.

The featured speaker is Eugene Robinson, columnist and associate editor for the Washington Post, who will offer his perspective on the unforgettable political season.

Details and an online registration form are available on the CAS Web Site at www.casact.org.  On-site registration is available at the meeting.  Members of the press are welcome to attend the meeting and are asked to register in advance with Mike Boa, CAS Director of Communications and Marketing, at 703-276-3100 or mboa@casact.org.

The Casualty Actuarial Society fulfills its mission to advance actuarial science through a focus on research and education.  Among its 4,900 members are experts in property-casualty insurance, reinsurance, finance, risk management, and enterprise risk management.