September 2009, Issue No. 60

Chairperson's Corner

by Keith Dall

It is hard to believe that we are more than halfway through 2009. The Marketing and Distribution Section Council has completed many tasks and has plans to complete several more before the end of the year.

Our core responsibility is to provide continuing education to our members and all members of the SOA. We continued that effort this year by sponsoring several sessions at the SOA spring meeting and the Product Development Symposium. Andy Ferris coordinated the sessions that MaD sponsored at the spring meeting. This year we added a networking opportunity by offering a chance for our members to get to know each other during a special MaD section reception.

Chuck Ritzke coordinated the sessions for the Product Development Symposium in Los Angeles, which continues to be a popular seminar. We are delighted to continue to be one of the sponsors along with the Product Development section.

The SOA annual meeting will be in Boston at the end of October. Jennifer Brady has been working diligently to offer several sessions sponsored by our section. We are co-sponsoring a breakfast this year. The theme of the breakfast discussion and breakout sessions will be generations and the impact each generation has on product development, distribution and products. The MaD section will also have a separate reception to get to know our fellow members.

We have set a goal to sponsor three webinars this year. Mike Kaster organized the first, on bank insurance, in May. The seminar was very successful, with 68 participants. The second webinar will be in September on credit insurance; the final webinar for 2009 will be on e-data.

We also plan to work with the SOA, LOMA, LIMRA, and ACLI to coordinate a session at the LIC meeting in the spring of 2010. This meeting is a good match for our section as we try to offer our members continuing education on topics related to product development processes and distribution channels.

Maria Thomson is working closely with the SOA to organize a research project on underwriting mortality risk utilizing electronic tools. The MaD section is assisting the SOA to fund the research project. It is possible that preliminary results of the survey may be available to be discussed at the SOA annual meeting.

The SOA is working on updating its Web site along with each of the section Web sites. Mike Kaster is then going to update all of the content on the MaD section Web site.

Doug Bennett is writing a textbook for ACTEX that covers the economics of individual insurance distribution. Several council members and friends of the council will be reviewing and editing the textbook.

By the time you receive this newsletter, the election process will be over. This year, we had a full slate of candidates for the elections. All of the candidates are very qualified and we are excited to be adding three new council members in the near future.

We are always interested in receiving feedback from our members. Please let me know if you have any comments, questions or great ideas to enhance the membership of our section.