Claims Conference

Optional Advanced Claims Workshop

This workshop qualifies for those holding the Mutual Insurance Professional designation to earn the MIP-Claims certification endorsement, but it is open for all to attend.

As claims professionals gain experience, they will be asked to handle more difficult and complex claims. This program will provide a basis for coverage analysis and how it is applied to the facts that have been developed because of the claim investigation. This will include a discussion of how coverage can be broadened or limited because of definitions, endorsements, exclusions, and court interpretation. Attendees will review certain unusual situations and learn how to critically analyze coverage and damages. Because reserve settings can have broad impacts on an insurer’s operations, this course will explore various reserve methods that can assist claims professionals in correctly setting reserves. Because of the litigious nature of society, attendees will also identify effective litigation strategies for defending their insureds.

Learning Objectives:
1. Develop a plan of investigation that addresses the necessary issues relating to coverage, liability, and damages.
2. Evaluate and apply coverage correctly based on accident facts and objective analysis.
3. Implement litigation strategies that will improve outcomes.
4. Accurately reserve claims based on objective findings.

The cost of this workshop is $550 for NAMIC Members and $800 for Nonmembers

Registration and Event Information Desk

The Registration and Event Information Desk is the main hub for conference information and badge pick-up. NAMIC staff will be on hand to welcome you and answer any questions you have during the conference.

Vendor Space Open

NAMIC Welcome and Opening Session: From Climate to Courtroom: Strategic Insights into Property/Casualty Claims Issues

From the intensifying impacts of climate change and rising reconstruction costs to the growing influence of social inflation and third-party litigation financing, claims professionals are navigating a more complex and volatile environment than ever before. This session will explore the key macro and micro trends driving change in Property/Casualty claims, with a focus on how these forces are interacting to create new challenges — and opportunities — for insurers. The session will focus on emerging issues that impact the claims environment, including catastrophe frequency and severity, resiliency and preparedness, nuclear verdict, social inflation, third-party litigation financing, tort reform, and fraud.

Glenn Frankel
Head of North America Claims
Gen Re

Glenn Frankel

Senior Vice President & Head of North America Claims

Gen Re

Networking Break

Join us in Bonnet Creek Foyer to chat with fellow attendees, grab a bite to eat, and stretch your legs.

Panel Discussion: AI in Claims: Innovation, Oversight and the Future of Property/Casualty Operations

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming claims operations across the property/casualty industry, reshaping how carriers evaluate losses, detect fraud, and serve policyholders. This panel will explore the current state of AI in claims, the evolving landscape of claims technology, and the opportunities and challenges emerging from these advancements. Panelists will also discuss what these innovations mean for the future of the P/C industry, including workforce impacts, regulatory considerations, and strategic adoption. Attendees will walk away with a clear, forward looking understanding of how AI is redefining claims and where the industry is headed next.

Bryan Falchuk (Moderator)
Managing Director
Insurance Evolution Partners

CJ Przybyl
CEO & CO-Founder
Reserv, Inc.

Lindsey Stephani
Policy Vice President, Data Science, AI/ML, and Cybersecurity

Megan Eckstrom
Vice President of Claims
The Philadelphia Contributionship

Bryan Falchuk

President & Chief Executive Officer

Property Loss & Liability Insurance Research Bureau

Megan Eckstrom

Vice President, Claims

Philadelphia Contributionship Group

Lindsey Stephani

Policy Vice President, Data Science, Ai, & Cybersecurity

NAMIC

Networking Break

Join us in Bonnet Creek Foyer to chat with fellow attendees, grab a bite to eat, and stretch your legs.

Future-Ready Leadership: Preparing Leaders and Teams for the Era of Accelerating Change

The insurance and claims landscape are transforming at breakneck speed. AI, shifting customer expectations, climate risk, social inflation, and regulatory pressures are rewriting the rules of the game. In this session, discover what it takes to be a Future-Ready Leader, someone who thrives amid disruption, inspires resilience, and turns uncertainty into opportunity. Through research-based insights, practical frameworks, and real-world examples, you’ll learn how to build adaptability, see opportunity in disruption, and lead with confidence—even when the road ahead is anything but clear.

Trent Stoker, CPCU, MAOL, PMP
Director of Organizational Performance
PEMCO Mutual Insurance Company

Networking Reception

Optional Activity: Universal CityWalk Shuttle

Discover an eclectic mix of unique shops, one-of-a-kind restaurants and lively entertainment at Universal CityWalk. Attendees will take a charter bus to Universal CityWalk, which is approximately 20 minutes from Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek. Once at CityWalk attendees can explore on their own or gather with fellow conference attendees for great food and fellowship. Reservations for small groups – six to ten people – are secured at several restaurants. If you join for dinner, you will pay for your own dinner at the end of the meal.

The cost for this activity is $45.

Attendee Breakfast

Join fellow attendees for a hot breakfast and cup of coffee to charge up before sessions kick off for the day.

Registration and Event Information Desk

The Registration and Event Information Desk is the main hub for conference information and badge pick-up. NAMIC staff will be on hand to welcome you and answer any questions you have during the conference.

Vendor Space Open

A. Solutions Fastpitch

This session offers attendees the chance to hear from a range of companies presenting their latest innovations, technologies, and services designed to enhance the efficiency, performance, and growth of insurance companies. Attendees can ask questions during the session and engage with vendors one-on-one afterward. Fastpitch participants include Filevine and NAMIC Compliance.

C. Cracking the NPS Code with Reviews: What Detractors and Promoters Reveal About the Claims Experience

Carriers rely on NPS to measure the health of the claims experience, but most teams struggle to translate a score into clear, fixable actions. Using anonymized insurance data + insights from Trustpilot, this session breaks down what detractors (the equivalent of 1–2-star experiences) and promoters (4–5-star experiences) consistently tell us about communication, expectations, speed, fairness, and empathy. Participants will learn how to recognize the service behaviors that lower NPS and the operational habits that lift it. Through benchmarks, interactive polling, and practical frameworks, attendees will leave with a clearer roadmap for strengthening claimant trust and improving outcomes.

Alysse Slocum
VP of Product and Audience Marketing
Trustpilot

Turning Claims Data Into Action: What It Takes To Make Analytics Work

Claims teams don’t need more data – they need data, workflows, and people working together. This session shows how to turn analytics and AI scores into real world impact for leaders and frontline teams. We’ll walk through a practical claims use case to diagnose why a model seems to “not work,” uncover the issues underneath, and translate insights into guidance that claims leaders will actually use. You’ll see what it really takes to make analytics stick: building trust, elevating leadership conversations, tightening workflows, improving data hygiene where it matters, and measuring outcomes in ways that leaders and adjusters trust.

Alena Kharkavets
Head of Claims, North America
WTW

Alena Kharkavets

Head of Claims, North America, Insurance Consulting & Technology

WTW

Networking Break

Join us in Bonnet Creek Foyer to chat with fellow attendees, grab a bite to eat, and stretch your legs.

C. Plaintiff Attorneys’ Insights: How They Evaluate and Pursue Injury Claims

This session aims to provide a behind-the-scenes look at how plaintiff’s attorneys evaluate, posture, and negotiate bodily injury claims — from intake to final demand. We will explore the strategies plaintiffs use to shape liability and damages narratives, drive policy-limits demands, and set up bad faith exposure. Just as importantly, we will highlight how defense counsel and claims professionals can anticipate these tactics, counter them effectively, and ensure that cases are evaluated and resolved from a position of strength and objectivity.

Josh Davis
Shareholder
Brown & James Law Firm

Richard Woolf
Partner
Brown & James Law Firm

The Listening Advantage: Using Psychology and Technology to Champion Negotiation Techniques

The Listening Advantage examines how active listening, awareness of cognitive biases, and smart use of technology can provide useful techniques for effective negotiation – and everyday communication with insureds and claimants. This session will discuss practical tools for claims professionals to better understand insureds, third-party claimants, and opposing representatives. Attendees will learn how to recognize and manage unconscious biases that impact decision‐making, and leverage modern technologies to support fair, efficient resolutions of claims in a timely manner and in accordance with the policies at issue.

Nicole Fluet
Director/Attorney
Galloway Johnson Tompkins Burr & Smith

Nicole Fluet

Director

Galloway Johnson Tompkins Burr & Smith

Where Underwriting Meets Claims: Overlap, Interaction, and Mutual Impact

This session explores how underwriting and claims can work together to drive stronger insurance outcomes. By breaking down traditional silos, we’ll show how data sharing, customer touchpoints, and real-world feedback loops improve risk selection, pricing accuracy, and claims handling. Case studies across auto, property, and health insurance will highlight how collaboration reduces fraud, enhances transparency, and delivers faster settlements. Attendees will leave with practical insights into technology enablers, future collaboration models, and how integration builds customer trust.

Troy Spoonemore
Chief Underwriting and Risk Officer
GuideOne

Troy Spoonemore

Senior Vice President, Chief Underwriting & Risk Officer

GuideOne Insurance Company

Attendee Lunch

Grab some food from a hot buffet and mingle with fellow attendees over the lunch break. You are welcome to come and go at your convenience.

The U.S. Economy in 2026

During this entertaining and informative session, Elliot Eisenberg, Ph.D., will provide an overview and outlook for the economic environment in which insurance operates. He will share his thoughts on how all four parts of the gross domestic product will perform, what changes are in store for the softening labor market, the path of inflation, the thinking of the Federal Reserve, the most likely route of interest rates, and the likelihood of a near-term recession. Elliot will also delve into new and existing car sales and prices, auto and credit card default rates, the shape of the yield curve, and much more.

Elliot Eisenberg, Ph.D.
President & Chief Executive Officer
Graphs and Laughs LLC

Elliot Eisenberg

Chief Executive Officer & Chief Economist

GraphsandLaughs, LLC

Networking Break

Join us in Bonnet Creek Foyer to chat with fellow attendees, grab a bite to eat, and stretch your legs.

A. Make Appraisals Great Again

Appraisal clauses have been in property insurance policies for over a century, but only recently has use of the process increased significantly. With increased use, however, comes manipulation and abuse of the process. By improving policy language and monitoring of the process, appraisal can be an effective tool in promptly and amicably resolving disputed claims. Yes, it is possible to Make Appraisal Great Again — and this session will teach you how to do it.

Steve Badger
Partner
Zelle LLP

B. Human Biomechanics in Low-Speed Vehicle Collisions

Human Biomechanics in Low-Speed Collisions is a one-hour presentation designed to help participants understand the dynamics of the human body and the associated injury potential in low-speed automotive accidents. Human anatomy, with a focus on the skeletal system, spinal column, and location of landmarks, will be discussed so that personal injury allegations may be more clearly understood. Participants will be introduced to the body dynamics and injury potential involved in several types of vehicle impacts. The seminar also covers commonly claimed injuries, such as strains and sprains, bulging discs, intervertebral disc herniation, temporomandibular joint dysfunction, and more.

Dr. Niky Zaragoza-Rivera
District Manager
Rimkus

Panel Discussion: Soft, Hard, or Somewhere in Between? Market Perspective from the Reinsurance Side

Extreme weather, shock verdicts, and economic headwinds continue to hammer the reinsurance industry, along with a constantly changing marketplace. In this moderated panel discussion, two senior underwriters from a major NAMIC reinsurer will discuss the trends that affect their underwriting decisions, outline reinsurance marketplace dynamics, and cast a wary eye on what may lie ahead 2026 and beyond. Additionally, the session will cover how reinsurers and client companies can collaborate to generate mutually beneficial outcomes.

Tim Fletcher (Moderator)
Senior Emerging Issues Specialist
Gen Re

Erin Duffey
Treaty Casualty Underwriting Manager
Gen Re

Ben Skurek
Treaty Senior Account Underwriter
Gen Re

Jeff Weisel
Casualty Claims Manager
Gen Re

Erin Duffey

Underwriting Manager

Gen Re

Benjamin Skurek

Senior Treaty Underwriter

Gen Re

Jeffrey Weisel

Claims Manager

Gen Re

Networking Break and Vendor Raffles

Join us in Bonnet Creek Foyer to chat with fellow attendees, grab a bite to eat, and stretch your legs.

B. Educational Session

C. Educational Session

From FNOL to First Decision: Digital Validation at the Front Door of Property & Casualty Claims

As property and casualty claims become increasingly digital across lines of business, carriers face growing pressure to make faster, more accurate decisions earlier in the claim lifecycle. Relying solely on downstream investigation is no longer sufficient to manage claim severity, leakage, operational strain, and emerging fraud risks. This session explores how claim organizations are applying digital validation at the front end of claims management to evaluate claims by leveraging rules engines, document authentication, and image analysis to assess risk at FNOL across auto, property, liability, workers’ compensation and more. Attendees will learn how early validation supports smarter claim routing, reduces unnecessary investigative activity, and improves overall outcomes while enhancing the customer experience. Using real-world claim scenarios, this session will demonstrate how insurers are embedding decision intelligence earlier in the claims process. Specifically at claim evaluation rather than relying solely on downstream reviews, strengthening controls, improving consistency, and reducing risk without adding operational friction, payment delays, or adjuster burden.

D. Russell Buchanan
Executive Vice President
Allied Universal Compliance and Investigations

Russ Buchanan

Executive Vice President

Allied Universal Compliance & Investigations

Optional Activity: Ivanhoe Village Food Tour

Discover the vibrant flavors and history of Ivanhoe Village on this guided walking food tour! Led by a local expert, you’ll visit a curated selection of beloved neighborhood restaurants, bars, and shops, indulging in delicious bites and sips along the way. As you stroll through this charming Orlando Main Street district, you'll uncover fascinating stories about its past—from its pineapple farming roots to its transformation into a thriving arts and food scene. With a mix of sweet, savory, and sippable delights, this tour offers the perfect way to experience one of Orlando’s most unique neighborhoods!

The cost of this activity is $160.

Attendee Breakfast

Join fellow attendees for a hot breakfast and cup of coffee to charge up before sessions kick off for the day.

Registration and Event Information Desk

The Registration and Event Information Desk is the main hub for conference information and badge pick-up. NAMIC staff will be on hand to welcome you and answer any questions you have during the conference.

Vendor Space Open

Peer-to-Peer Roundtable Discussions

The best teachers are often those who are walking in your shoes. Join fellow claims professionals in roundtable discussions focused on emerging issues, professional development, and industry hot topics. The session will include interactive, engaging discussions that allow you to talk about what you and your peers are facing and learn from each other’s successes and challenges.

Networking Break

Join us in Bonnet Creek Foyer to chat with fellow attendees, grab a bite to eat, and stretch your legs.

Closing Session: Washington Update

With more than two decades of experience in Washington’s political circles, Jimi Grande, NAMIC’s senior vice president of federal and political affairs, will provide an update on NAMIC’s current advocacy efforts in the nation’s capital.

Jimi Grande
Senior Vice President, Federal & Political Affairs
NAMIC