Webinars

[Dec. 12, 2023] Understand timely issues impacting pool coverages and services to pool members, including loss trends, reinsurance availability and pricing, current pool operational issues. 

Presenter
Ann Gergen, Executive Director, AGRiP
 

View the presentations slides. 

[Sept. 12, 2023] Public entity pools are facing a hard reinsurance market, escalating claims costs and inflation-driven expense increases. On top of that, increasing interest rates since 2021 have stressed the net position of many pools through unrealized losses in bond portfolios, and unrealized losses may limit flexibility to trade. 

Attend this session to learn about questions and considerations for your pool's portfolio, including:

• What is the one question pools should be asking about their portfolio right now? 
• What options do pools have to meet their cash flow needs? 
• After cash flow needs are addressed, what sector of the market is attractive?
• Are significant changes in portfolio strategy warranted?

Presenters
Dan Byrnes, CFA, is a Principal, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager at AAM with over 20 years of investment experience. Dan’s primary focus is working with risk pools around the country to design appropriate portfolio strategies and manage investments. Dan has worked with risk pools for sixteen years and he speaks at various industry events. Prior to joining AAM, Dan worked as an accountant at CNA Insurance. Dan is CFA Charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of Chicago. Dan earned a BS in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. 

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[Jun. 14, 2022] ]This webinar will dive into a case study to review how a pool educated (and sometimes re-educated) current and new governing body members about the pool's investment process and their fiduciary responsibilities. You'll learn:

• The governing body's role within a pool's investment operations
• Common decision-making errors made by governing body members
• How staff can help their governing body members become comfortable with the depth of their investment responsibilities

Speaker: Dan Smereck is Managing Director of Strategic Asset Alliance, an independent investment consulting firm that works exclusively with public entity pools and insurance companies.



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Read The Value of Foresight in a VUCA World.

[May 21, 2024] In an age of heightened transparency and public scrutiny, local entity staff are consistently navigating the long-term trend of what have come to be called First Amendment Audits, the filming of local entity staff doing work in public spaces. These situations often are understandably unfamiliar and stressful for local entity staff, and can lead to claims against local entities.

Attendees will hear about:

• Typical tactics and common motivations of First Amendment auditors

• A refresher on the First Amendment, free speech protections, and where members of the public have the right to record

• Tips for interacting with and avoiding escalation with auditors

• Steps local entities can take to clearly identify public and non-public spaces, including areas that should be deemed non-public due to their use (such as interior areas of jails or health facilities, sensitive utilities facilities, etc.)

• How public entity pools can support local entity members

• Resources to help pools and local entities
  
  

[June 13, 2023] Public scrutiny of law enforcement agencies remains in the spotlight. Stories in the news, often accompanied by video footage, create many emotions and news stories that will be written throughout the coming months. At no time more than now is it important to find practical solutions to avoid mistakes and prevent misconduct.

This session will provide insight into the background, model and applicability of the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE®) Project that teaches law enforcement officer practical skills and tactics to intervene in another officer’s conduct to prevent harm — and seeks to drive cultural change in the process. Attendees will learn about Utah Local Governments Trust's recent partnership with ABLE. This innovative program was launched in 2020 by Georgetown University Law Center and Sheppard Mullin, working closely with law enforcement and community stakeholders.

Resources

• ABLE Website
• ABLE Program Standards
• FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Article -- ABLE Bystandership Can be Taught and Learned
• The Municipal Magazine -- Active Bystandership Training for Law Enforcement
• Steve Hansen, CEO of Utah Local Governments Trust and Executive Director of ABLE Utah Project. Phone: (801) 808-2137.

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[Feb. 14, 2023] Learn why and how a pool built a mental health program to support law enforcement officers filing increasing numbers of PTSD claims. You’ll get a look at how the pool used internal and external data to identify common member issues, understand why the pool created a toolkit of practical education for officers and local elected leaders, peer support groups and more. You’ll learn about early outcomes and what is on the horizon, as well as understand how such a program can support your first responders.

View the presentation slides.

View the Public Safety Mental Health Action Guide

[April 11, 2023] Learn about ways your pool can prioritize diverse, equitable and inclusive care in the medical plans your members offer. The session will help identify gaps in medical plan data by comparing claims data and social determinants of health among plan participants, share tactical design changes that improve access for all, and offer steps pools can take to differentiate their offerings. 

Attend this webinar to learn:

• How to identify gaps in your medical plan data by comparing claims data and social determinants of health in your pool’s plan participants
  
  
• Tactical medical plan design changes that improves access to quality care for all
  
  
• Steps to differentiate your benefit offerings helping your members retain and recruit top talent

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[Apr. 12, 2022] Take a look at how a health pool developed a program to help people understand how their DNA affects their bodies’ responses to medications and the potential for health issues. Learn:

• What pharmacogenomics is and how it can be used to support employee groups
• Examples of information provided by this emerging technology
• Hurdles faced such as health data privacy and limitations in medical records
• How the pool is funding the new program
• How the pool's governing body has been instrumental in the development of this program

Speakers: Wendy Parker is Executive Director of HealthTrust, a pool based in New Hampshire that provides medical, dental and other health benefits to employees of the state's schools, towns, cities, counties and other public entities. Scott Megill is President and CEO of Coriell Life Sciences.

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[Jan. 8, 2020] AGRiP Succession Planning Resident Steve Trautman shares a practical framework for managing the unexpected departure of key leaders within your pool. The tools presented will help you:

- Define the qualities, tasks and relationships unique to your pool’s leadership roles

- Prepare for and conduct emergency knowledge transfer in a limited period of time

- Reduce the risk of losing key skills by transferring them to multiple successors

- Measure whether knowledge and skills were transferred successfully

Presentation Slides

[Dec. 8, 2020] In this webinar, Dan Smereck of VP-level QEI Patron Strategic Asset Alliance explained how pools of different types are dealing with the uncertain investment environment and how today’s economy indicates where markets might be headed. Dan utilized a blind peer analysis of pooling client portfolios to help explain how investments are being impacted by current events. Attendees also gained initial insight into the practice of environmental, social and governance investing (i.e., ESG investing).

[Jan. 8, 2020] Identify more than a dozen areas of cybersecurity interest to pools, using real-world examples as well as steps pools can take to reduce risk and respond to a cyber attack. Presentation Slides »

[July 16, 2024] Watch this recorded webinar to get a better understanding of actuarial reports, what they say and what goes into developing them. Using pool data, unique risk drivers and trends, and projections of future conditions likely to impact fiscal health, actuaries tell a unique story about your pool. This enables richer discussions and better decisions that support long-term pool financial strength and stability.

• The role of an actuary — what they do (and don't).

• Key actuarial concepts, including loss history, risk profile and tolerance, funding levels and capital adequacy.

• What actuaries need from pool staff and governing body members to provide a meaningful assessment of a pool's current and future financial position.

View the handout.

[Jan. 8, 2020] The accelerating unmanned aircraft industry, utilization and implications for pools and public entities. Presentation Slides »

What Good Leadership Looks Like 

Originally aired Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. ET

Public entity pools are seeing an increasing number of new top executives. Some of these executives have taken the helm of their pool from inside the pool, others from another pool and some are joining pooling from private industry. 

This webinar is a chance to:

• Think through what leadership is for a pool executive
• Identify a list of what "good" looks like

View the presentation slides. 

View the worksheet.