The 2020 RRG Leaders Summit Though Attendees’ Eyes

What About the Event Did They Find Valuable?

The 2nd annual RRG Leaders Summit, jointly hosted by NRRA and Captive Review, took place on February 11 at the Sofitel Los Angeles, Beverly Hills Hotel. Some 50 industry leaders attended.

We at NRRA came away thinking it was quite a success, although we might not be the most objective source when it comes to evaluating the event. That’s why we interviewed attendees to find out what they thought.

Two of those we spoke with were:

• Joe Carter, Vice President, Business Development and Marketing at United Educators (UE), which insures some 1,600 educational institutions around the country.

• Christopher Reed, general counsel for Nonprofits Insurance Alliance (NIA), an umbrella group of several similar entities that insure nonprofits.

According to Reed, the lineup of speakers at the summit was impressive. He observed: “Not only were the presenters true thought leaders, they also had the practical background, the real-life experience, to stand behind their ideas. They had already put a lot of those ideas into effect.”

Equally important for Reed, the event afforded invaluable networking and socializing opportunities. “One topic I talked to people about,” Reed said, “was in what ways their businesses were similar to NIA and in what ways they were different. I discovered there was a lot of common ground.”

Carter had a similar reaction. “It was good to be around like-minded leaders. Meeting and chatting with people who face the kinds of challenges you do, and sometimes different challenges, is always time well spent,” he noted.

“I learned that many of the issues we’re concerned about at UE are shared by others in the RRG community. Issues around social inflation, capital management, providing consistently good client service, to name a few — they’re very widespread concerns in the industry,” Carter said.

Carter admitted he’s fortunate to be able to attend many conferences in the educational sector, in addition to insurance conferences. He’s aware, though, that not everyone has opportunities to embed themselves into the industry they serve. “That’s important for all risk retention or captive groups,” he said.

Many of those groups insure businesses that are so small, there are very limited options in this regard, Carter pointed out. “From that perspective, I would highly recommend the Leaders Summit: It affords people a chance to learn from others in the industry that they might not have otherwise.”

Reed came away from the summit feeling the future for RRGs looks bright. “For me, another takeaway was that risk retention groups are going to become a bigger and bigger part of the insurance landscape,” he said. “While it’s true that in certain spaces the RRG numbers have dropped, I think overall the RRG percentage of the market will be going up.”

NRRA is exploring the possibility of holding another Leaders Summit next year.