2021 LIMRA Virtual Annual Conference Agenda
All times listed are Eastern Daylight Time.
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
11:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. - WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS
Host:
Sandy McCarthy
President
OneAmerica Financial Partners, Inc.
11:15 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. - GENERAL SESSION
David Levenson, DBA, FSA, CFA - President and Chief Executive Officer, LIMRA and LOMA
11:40 a.m. - 12:40 p.m. - GENERAL SESSION
Presenting General James Mattis:
Jamie Ohl, Moderator
Executive Vice President, President, Workplace Solutions
Head of Operations and Brand
Lincoln Financial Group
General James Mattis - U.S. Secretary of Defense (2017-2018)
12:40 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. - BREAK
1:30 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.: BREAKOUT SESSIONS
VIKRAM KAMATH
Senior Data Scientist and Director of Analytics
LIMRA
The effective use of data and analytics is becoming increasingly vital for success in the financial services industry. But there are also inherent risks to deploying analytics solutions. In this session, we will share some of the best practices that life and retirement companies are following to grow and operate their analytics teams, and highlight some of the valuable applications they have developed. We will also discuss what analytics organizations are doing to meet their ethical obligations, maintain sound methodology, and minimize their risks.
MATT BAHL
Vice President and Workplace Market Lead
Financial Health Network
SARAH PARKER
Senior Director and Insurance Market Lead
Financial Health Network
ALISON SALKA, Moderator
Senior Vice President and Director, LIMRA Member Benefits and Research
LIMRA
Advisors and employers are ramping up their financial wellness offerings to improve the financial health and well-being of their clients and employees. Today’s environment provides a unique opportunity to help people take control of their finances with tools to reduce debt, save more and have more peace of mind. This session will focus on innovation in wellness programs and how they are evolving. What's driving innovation and what are the emerging trends? And what actually works? What have we learned from businesses that orient their products and services around a financial health objective? Join experts from the Financial Health Network, a national nonprofit whose mission is to improve financial health, in a discussion that will provide insight to improving outcomes for individuals, employees, and communities.
HELENA GOTTSCHLING
Chief Human Resources Officer
RBC
NEIL SHASTRI
Associate Partner
Aon
JEFF RIEDER
Partner
Aon
KATHRYN REID, Moderator
Vice President, Talent Solutions
LIMRA and LOMA
Talent makes all the difference in the survivability of any business. Facing a tight pandemic economy, we all have a responsibility to cultivate talent as a focus of our business approaches. Talent plays directly into the ways a company responds to challenges and emergencies such as the coronavirus pandemic, especially as we look to the future. This session brings to light new ways of thinking about talent in an environment that encompasses everything from full remote, to fully in an office, to a hybrid model to ensure our successes with talent for the future.
FREDERIC GLORIEUX
Senior Director, Underwriting and New Business
Industrial Alliance
JENNIFER MCGARRITY
Vice President, Strategy and Enablement
RBC Insurance
VERONIQUE DORVAL
Senior Vice-President, Client Experience Office
Sun Life
ALKA GAUTAM, Moderator
Executive Vice President, President and CEO
RGA
Emerging from the pandemic, the insurance sector is looking fundamentally different: much more agile, secure, connected and digitally-enabled. The key is to stay the course and sustain the pace of this transformation. COVID-19 has been the catalyst for innovation in insurance, unlocking greater levels of customer experience and personalization along with providing the industry with a digital wake-up call. This executive panel will discuss what we have learned as an industry and how we can be better prepared for the next pandemic.
2:20 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. - BREAK
2:45 p.m. - 3:55 p.m. - GENERAL SESSION
Presenting Michael Rogers:
Adrian Griggs, Moderator
Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer
Pacific Life
Michael Rogers - Futurist in Residence at The New York Times
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
11:00 a.m. - 11:05 a.m. - WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS
Host:
Barbara Turner
President and Chief Operating Officer
Ohio National Financial Services
11:05 a.m. - 12:10 p.m. - GENERAL SESSION
Michael Temple, Moderator
Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer
Protective Life
Neal Baumann - Global Insurance Leader, Deloitte
Kweilin Ellingrud - Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company
Grant Kvalheim - CEO and President, Athene USA
12:10 p.m. - 12:40 p.m. - BREAK
12:40 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.: BREAKOUT SESSIONS
HELEN RENNIE, FLMI, ACS, PCS
Vice President, Advisor Client Services
Penn Mutual
DAWN BEHNKE, FLMI
Executive Vice President, Life Insurance Division
Pacific Life
DOYLE WILLIAMS, CLU, ChFC, CPCU
Senior Vice President, Distribution Companies
Protective
CHRIS DICKINSON, Moderator
Managing Principal
Capco
The ways in which companies adapted when faced by COVID-19 directly affected the customer experience. As the pursuit of an optimized experience continues to be a strategic driver for carriers, there is great interest in understanding the long-term status of the changes applied. In this panel discussion, industry leaders will reflect on the efficacy of efforts to address the customer experience in the midst of the pandemic and discuss their perspectives on directions the CX journey is likely to take as we move to the future.
BINAYAK DUTTA
Managing Director, Emerging Markets, and Group Chief Distribution Officer
FWD Group
KARTIK SAKTHIVEL, Moderator
Vice President and Chief Information Officer
LIMRA, LOMA, LL Global
Over the last decade, digitalization has been touted as the much-needed change the insurance industry needs to jump the curve. Nearly overnight, the pandemic created intense pressure to accelerate that change for distribution channels, and especially pushed hard those executives who are still dealing with traditional processes. The lessons learned in facing these challenges lay the groundwork for a more innovative, digital future for the industry.
CHRISTOPHER MORBELLI
Managing Director, Insurance Advisory/Financial Services
EY
PATRICK LEARY
Corporate Vice President, Workplace Benefits Research
LIMRA
The war for talent continues to intensify. Increasingly, employers are using a robust and modern benefits package as a competitive differentiator. As such, the workplace benefits market represents a growing opportunity and an area of intense competition for carriers, where experience, products, services, and technology can provide competitive advantage. However, traditional sales and service models are under pressure. Increasing complexity, an evolving ecosystem, intense competition in the third-party landscape, changing employee needs, a complex regulatory environment and digital transformation all confront organizations looking to succeed in this market. Based on new research conducted by EY and LIMRA, this workshop will examine the rapidly changing dynamics of the workplace benefits landscape and explore how carriers must adapt to harness profitable growth in this market.
RUSS ANDERSON
Head of Financial Crimes Services
LIMRA
ROBERT WATERMAN
Head of Fraud Operations and Business Services
Mass Mutual Insurance Operations
Learn how the increase in familial and 3rd party imposter fraud coupled with the move to a more digital product and service offering has created an opportunity. Smart companies have not just implemented additional controls and procedures, instead they reimagined how they could better service the customer safely and securely. When done right companies can enhance the customer experience, offer increased servicing capabilities, reduce cost and prevent fraud.
1:30 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. - BREAK
1:50 p.m. - 2:40 p.m.: BREAKOUT SESSIONS
BOB EHREN
Senior Vice President
Securian Financial
KARTIK SAKTHIVEL
Vice President & Chief Information Officer
LIMRA, LOMA, LL Global
This session will present a pragmatic look at digital trends and technologies that are likely to prove as disruptors or enablers in the next three to five years. We will recap our journey through the COVID-19 pandemic, how the pandemic proved disruptive to the digital disruption that was already underway. The session will present a path forward on where our industry goes from here and what we need to do to prepare and ultimately win this digital age.
FRED REISH
Partner
Faegre Drinker Biddle and Reath LLP
PHYLLIS BORZI
Former Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Secuity of the United States Department of Labor
SKIP EDMONDS, Moderator & Speaker
Chief Compliance Officer
LIMRA, LOMA, LL Global
Uncharted seas lie ahead when it comes to the DOL Fiduciary Rule. Carriers, broker-dealers, and investment advisors utilizing PTE 2020-02 are dealing with a heavy compliance burden given the deadline of December 20, 2021. And — with a potential rewrite of the Rule on the DOL’s agenda for 2022 — more changes are on the horizon. In this session, experts and industry leaders will share their thoughts on what to expect in 2022, and areas for companies to consider as they proactively respond to the coming compliance storm.
ROB CROTHERS
Managing Director, Head of Product, BlackRock Retirement Group
BlackRock
JENNY GLOWACKI
Head of In-Plan Retirement Income
AIG
SRI REDDY
Senior Vice President, Retirement and Income Solutions
Principal Financial
MATTHEW DRINKWATER, Moderator
Corporate Vice President
Secure Retirement Institute, LIMRA
The $2 trillion-a-year retirement income market opportunity is enormous, with opportunities for retail and workplace-based income products and services. Yet income-focused annuity product sales have been declining, and in-plan solutions have seen limited success. Can the industry turn around this trend? At this session, industry leaders will share their perspectives on the strategic considerations for companies that are setting the course for the future of retirement income.
NATHALIA BELLIZIA
Managing Director and Partner
BCG
WILLIAM GAUMOND
Chief Financial Officer
Allianz Life
JAMES WEAKLEY
Senior Vice President and President, Emerging Markets International Insurance
Prudential Financial
NORMA ALICIA ROSAS
General Director
AMIS
ALISON SALKA, Moderator
Senior Vice President and Director, LIMRA Member Benefits and Research
LIMRA
What is keeping you and your peers awake at night? LIMRA and Boston Consulting Group surveyed hundreds of C-suite and executive-level leaders around the globe to find out. Come hear what the industry collectively has said. Validate, strengthen, and enlighten your strategies.
2:40 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - BREAK
3:00 p.m. - 3:55 p.m. - GENERAL SESSION
Alison Levine - Team Captain of the First American Women’s Everest Expedition and Author of the New York Times Best Seller; On the Edge: The Art of High-Impact Leadership
Thursday, October 28, 2021
11:00 a.m. - 11:05 a.m. - OPENING AND WELCOME
Neil Sprackling, Presiding
President US Life & Health
Swiss Re America Holding Corporation
Swiss Re Life & Health America, Inc.
11:05 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. - GENERAL SESSION
Gina Birchall, J.D., LLIF - Chief Operating Officer, LIMRA and LOMA
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. - GENERAL SESSION
Jason Dorsey - Generational Researcher, Best-Selling Author of Zconomy, and President of The Center for Generational Kinetics
12:15 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. - BREAK
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.: BREAKOUT SESSIONS
MARK LARAMEE
Vice President, Business Development Manager
Swiss Re
MANISH BHATT
Chief Executive Officer
Plum Life
HOLLY SNYDER
President
Nationwide Life
JOHN CARROLL, Moderator
CVP Member Relations & Sales
LIMRA
The traditional insurance distribution model is under pressure from both external and internal forces. Non-traditional competitors, expense pressures, and advances in technology contribute to the strain. Digital adoption and advances in underwriting – changes that have long been on the horizon – accelerated during the pandemic, and are helping us to reach underserved communities. At the same time, sales teams are grappling with engaging clients in the “new normal” and striving to make sense of the rapidly changing landscape. Those that keep up with the pace of this transformation and take advantage of the opportunities presented are likely to be the winners. With this as a backdrop, we will examine the drivers of these changes, and what they will mean for your business in the near future.
CHRIS BEHLING
Head of Risk Selection Strategy
Northwestern Mutual
TIM HESLIN, FSA, MAAA
President of AIG Life US
AIG
MARY BAHNA-NOLAN, FSA, MAAA
Senior Vice President, Head of Product Innovation and Strategy
Pacific Life
MAUREEN SHAUGHNESSY, FSA, MAAA, Moderator
Research Actuary
LIMRA
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the pace and scale of many innovations, including life insurance underwriting and risk selection. This innovation in underwriting, including accessing clinical medical data in new ways, using non-traditional data sources, and accelerating the pace of underwriting decisions through predictive models, may help our industry close the protection gap, but also comes with a multitude of questions and misunderstandings.
Will this new selection paradigm protect your company’s balance sheet? How can we ensure our predictive models do not cause harm from a societal perspective? Our panel of experts will candidly discuss these questions and others so we can help start clearing the confusion as we move forward in to the future of underwriting.
RONALD ADAMS
Vice President, Field Diversity & Inclusion
Northwestern Mutual
MARCIA DUKES
Diversity Practitioner, US Businesses
Prudential
LORIE VALLE-YANEZ
Head of MassMutual D&I
MassMutual
MARY JANE FORTIN, Moderator
Chief Commercial Officer
Thrivent
Investments in diversity, equity and inclusion are on the rise. The events of 2020 created even greater interest in measuring results, breakthrough progress, and drafting scenarios of what the "next normal" may look like. Leaders responsible to drive and measure DEI results will discuss the opportunities and challenges that accompany breakthrough results, and how these are evolving as awareness and commitment increases. Join the conversation to hear more about employee engagement, recruiting and retention, and how fully remote and hybrid workforces impact DEI work.
1:50 p.m. - 2:20 p.m. - BREAK
2:20 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. - GENERAL SESSION
Presenting Robin Roberts:
Brooks Tingle, Moderator
President and Chief Executive Officer
John Hancock Insurance