By Steve Hardin
The idea sharing power of AASCIF is well known among its
members, and the recent All Committees meeting in Las Vegas was another great
forum for this. During these uncertain times for the economy, legislative challenges, and the softening
insurance markets faced by many funds, a common goal for the members of our
committees is to continue the AASCIF tradition of idea sharing while minimizing
related costs. Decreasing budgets and increasing workloads present a need for relevant cost effective educational
opportunities, which can certainly be a challenge to find without incurring
travel costs. This is the primary rationale behind a webinar series that is being offered this year as a joint
effort of the Finance & Investments and Audit & Statistics committees
to provide an alternative to the annual workshop.
This year we will partner to provide a monthly
series of webinar presentations focused on timely and relevant
topics that will be available to a broader audience within the state
fund community. The
webinar presentations will be approximately one hour in length and,
to the greatest extent possible be structured and documented to meet
the requirements for continuing education credits for those
professionals that must meet annual requirements.
Topics tentatively include:
-
Risk Focused Audit Approach Utilized by
Insurance Departments and the Model Audit Rule
-
Economic and Insurance Market Update
-
Reinsurance Market Update
-
Enterprise Risk Management
-
Applications of Predictive Modeling in the
Premium Audit Process
-
Process Improvement - Measuring Savings and
Success
-
Structured Securities - Recent Statutory
and GAAP Accounting Developments
We are also researching the feasibility of a
roundtable discussion in the webinar format. Other topics can be added as we receive feedback from AASCIF
member funds. So, please send additional topics of interest to the e-mail address noted
below.
With this article, we hope to generate interest
and support for the webinar series. We are currently researching the continuing education
requirements of each AASCIF state, which is a formidable challenge
due to the diversity of state laws and requirements of various
professional organizations. Oklahoma, as an example, requires that on-line CPE providers be registered
with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, the
AICPA, or be approved by the Oklahoma Accountancy Board.
This is where you can help us. If you are interested in the webinar series and would like to
help us structure these educational opportunities to provide CPE
credits that are often difficult to satisfy with customary CPE
offerings, please send your state’s or other organization’s
on-line CPE requirements to Patty Ellis with CompSource Oklahoma at patty_e@compsourceok.com.
CompSource Oklahoma, like other funds, has benefited
significantly over the years from its participation and
membership in AASCIF. We are profoundly grateful to AASCIF and those funds that recently
provided critical information and testimony about similar
experiences. Through communication and teamwork among state funds facing similar
challenges, we can all contribute toward the achievement of our
common goals. Your thoughts, comments, recommendations, and guidance are highly valued
and appreciated as we focus our efforts on providing quality
opportunities for idea sharing and education.
Invitations with more detailed information will
be emailed before each webinar, with the information also appearing
the AASCIF website.
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