8:00 AM - 8:10 AM

Welcome! (CPE Check-in)

8:10 AM – 9:00 AM

Session Title: Economic Update

Speaker: Director Durham, Iowa Department of Revenue

Director Durham will share a broad look at Iowa’s economic landscape, focusing on how industry, workforce, housing, and quality of life intersect for long term growth. She’ll touch on Iowa’s efforts to invest in our communities and infrastructure and support key industries through a more competitive tax and incentive environment. The discussion will highlight how these strategies work together to strengthen Iowa’s position, support employers, and ensure the state remains a great place to live, work, and do business.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define Iowa’s economic landscape.
2. Recognize Iowa’s investment in our communities, infrastructure and support for key industries.
3. Identify how these strategies work together to strengthen Iowa’s support for companies and ensure the state remains a great place to live, work and do business.

9:00 AM – 9:05 AM

CPE Check-out and check-in

9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Session Title: Investing for Insurance Companies: Strategies in a Shifting Market

Speaker: Cindy Beaulieu, Conning

In today’s dynamic economic environment, insurance companies face evolving challenges and opportunities in managing their investment portfolios. Join Cindy Beaulieu from Conning for an in-depth session exploring how insurers are navigating current macroeconomic conditions and adjusting their investment strategies accordingly. From managing interest rate volatility to identifying growth opportunities in alternative asset classes, this session will provide insights into how insurance investors are balancing risk, return, and regulatory demands in a complex landscape. Attendees will also gain practical guidance and forward-looking perspectives on how market cycles and liquidity considerations are shaping long-term investment planning. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear a seasoned expert on where the industry is headed next.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify key macroeconomic factors influencing insurance company investment strategies, including interest rate volatility and market cycles.
2. Differentiate between traditional and alternative asset classes used by insurers to balance risk, return, liquidity, and regulatory requirements.
3. Interpret how liquidity considerations and regulatory constraints shape long-term investment planning for insurance portfolios across economic cycles.

9:55 AM – 10:25 AM

Vendors Intros and Break; CPE check-out and check-in

10:25 AM – 11:15 AM

Session Title: Supply Chain Disruption and Insurance Implications

Speaker: Janice Nieman, American Agriculture Insurance Company

Global supply chains remain fragile, but the risks facing insurers have evolved beyond pandemic disruptions. Climate events, geopolitical tensions, and concentrated suppliers are creating hidden accumulation risks and expanding contingent business interruption exposures across industries. This session explores how supply chain disruptions are affecting property and casualty insurance underwriting, claims severity, and portfolio risk.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify key drivers of modern supply chain disruptions, including climate impacts, geopolitical tensions, supplier concentration, and transportation chokepoints.
2. Differentiate between traditional business interruption exposures and contingent business interruption risks arising from supply chain dependencies.
3. Determine how supply chain disruptions can affect property and casualty insurance underwriting, claims severity, and portfolio accumulation risk.

11:15 AM – 11:20 AM

CPE Check-out and check-in

11:20 AM – 12:10 PM

Session Title: Employee Benefits Through a Fiduciary Lens

Speaker: Cara Kirsch, The Kirsch Group, LLC

This session examines employee benefits through the lens of fiduciary responsibility, with a clear focus on cost, transparency, and accountability. Attendees will learn where employers commonly overspend, where risks often go unnoticed, and what fiduciary standards actually require in today’s benefits environment. The goal is to help leaders make better decisions that align financial stewardship with doing right by employees.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the fiduciary obligations employers have in the design, funding, and oversight of employee benefit plans, including where common compliance and governance failures occur.
2. Analyze the true cost drivers within health and welfare benefits programs and distinguish between unavoidable expenses and preventable overspending.
3. Apply a fiduciary framework to evaluate brokers, vendors, and benefit strategies to ensure decisions are transparent, defensible, and aligned with the best interests of employees and the organization.

12:10 PM – 12:55 PM

Lunch; CPE Check-out and check-in

12:55 PM – 3:00 PM

Session Title: Ethics in Action: Psychological Safety and Ethical Decision Making

Speaker: Tabitha Choquette, Drake University

Ethical behavior is strengthened in psychologically safe teams. When individuals feel safe to speak up, ask hard questions, and challenge assumptions, risks are identified earlier, and unethical shortcuts are less likely. In this interactive session, participants will explore the Psychological Safety Continuum, identify behaviors that support ethical decision-making, and plan practical practices to build and sustain psychologically safe teams using relevant scenarios.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define psychological safety and ethical behavior within the context of work environments.
2. Identify behaviors on the Psychological Safety Continuum that increase the risk of unethical decision making.
3. Differentiate between psychologically safe and psychologically unsafe team responses to ethical concerns and errors.
4. Recognize workplace conditions that discourage employees from speaking up about ethical risks.
5. Determine how to create psychologically safe team norms that support ethical accountability and reduce the likelihood of misconduct.
6. Distinguish between civil challenge and silence when responding to ethical dilemmas in team discussions.
7. Interpret common insurance related ethical scenarios to determine how psychological safety influences individual and team decision making.

3:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Break with Vendors / Exhibitors; CPE Check-out and check-in

3:15 PM – 4:05 PM

Session Title: Retrospective vs Prospective Accounting: Why it Matters for Insurance Investment Portfolios

Speaker: Matt Gray, SS&C Technologies, Inc.

Attendees will learn the differences between Retrospective and Prospective accounting methods, how they apply and impact specific types of investments such as CLOs, ABS and Structured Products, and the impact of applying one method vs. the other on things such as Net Investment Income and overall financial reporting.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define the differences between Retrospective and Prospective accounting methods.
2. Identify which types of investments are most impacted by the differences in these two accounting methods.
3. Determine the impact that each accounting method has on things such as Net Investment Income volatility and other financial reporting metrics.

4:05 PM – 4:10 PM

CPE Check-out and check-in

4:10 PM – 5:00 PM

Session Title: 2026 Income Tax Update

Speaker: Alan Fine, Armanino

This session will provide an update on changes in Federal income taxation impacting insurance companies. The session will also explore the provisions of recent tax legislation which may impact insurance companies.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define changes in the Federal income tax environment impacting insurance companies.
2. Recognize how these changes may impact insurers.
3. Identify opportunities to maximize benefits and minimize negative consequences from these changes.

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

CPE Check out; Reception

8:00 AM – 8:05 AM

National update and CPE check-in

8:05 AM – 9:45 AM

Session Title: NAIC Update

Speaker: Connie Jasper Woodroof, Forvis Mazars/CJW Associates

It’s a new year, new NAIC groups have been formed and, of course, more changes are being considered. 2025 was a transition year for many of the investments schedules and 2026 is bringing even more changes, including the re-organization of the NAIC groups overseeing investments. Some of the reporting changes are effective for first quarter reporting. This session will include those reporting/accounting changes as well as other changes to the quarterly reporting. The discussion will include adopted and pending changes to the 2026 annual statements and risk-based capital (RBC) formulas. A brief synopsis of the activity from the NAIC’s Spring National Meeting will be provided.

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize 2026 first quarter statement reporting changes.
2. Determine what steps are needed for Schedule BA reporting in 2026.
3. Indicate pending changes to the RBC formulas.
4. Recall activities that occurred at the NAIC Spring National Meeting.
5. Define the NAIC procedure for adopting reporting changes.
6. Identify the new NAIC groups replacing the previous Valuation of Securities Task Force.

9:45 AM – 10:00 AM

Break with Vendors / Exhibitors / Drawings; CPE Check-out and check-in

10:00 AM – 10:50 AM

Session Title: The Current Cybersecurity Threat Landscape

Speaker: Jeremy Harpold, Adam Thompson, Amgad Twadros, Farm Bureau Financial Services

This session provides an overview of today's most common cybersecurity threats impacting organizations, including phishing attacks, malicious downloads, and the growing risks associated with unauthorized use of AI tools. Attendees will learn how these threats typically occur in real-world environments and how everyday user actions can either reduce or increase organizational risk. The session will highlight practical steps employees can take to recognize suspicious activity and protect sensitive data.

Learning Objectives:

1. IDENTIFY common characteristics of phishing emails and other social engineering tactics used to trick employees into revealing credentials or sensitive information.
2. RECOGNIZE the risks associated with downloading files, opening attachments, or executing software from untrusted sources and how these actions can introduce malware into an organization's systems.
3. DIFFERENTIATE between approved and unauthorized uses of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and the potential risks of entering sensitive data into AI platforms.

10:50 AM – 10:55 AM

CPE Check-out

11:00 AM – 11:10 AM

Business Meeting, Officer Slate

11:10 AM – 11:30 AM

Box Lunch - Stay or Go