National Symposium on Future of Terrorism Risk Insurance Set

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, leaders from the public and private sectors from throughout the nation will take part in the National Symposium on Terrorism Risk Insurance in the Cannon House Office Building on Friday, Oct. 7, in Washington, D.C.

The Congress is now considering the future of the federal government’s role in backing insurance that would protect private property. The symposium brings together many of the nation’s leading experts to discuss the relationship between terrorism risk, insurance, national security and public policy.

The Symposium is sponsored by the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, University of Pennsylvania; RAND Corporation; Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, University of Southern California; Congressional Quarterly; and The Communications Institute.

“In the months after September 11, another comparable attack in the short- term could seriously impact the public by threatening the financial stability of the insurance industry and its ability to protect public and private property,” said Howard Kunreuther, co-director Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, Wharton.

“Private insurers, and their re-insurers, may ultimately pay well in excess of $40 billion in claims resulting from the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, making the attack, by far, the largest single catastrophic loss the global insurance industry has suffered in its history from a terrorist attack,” added Robert Reville, co-director of the RAND Center for Terrorism Risk Management Policy, based in Santa Monica, California.

The U.S. Congress passed the 2002 Terrorism Risk Insurance Act or TRIA. The TRIA created a three-year federal program to support the “growth and stability of the market for private insurance against losses from terrorist attacks in order to protect the public.” The program is scheduled to expire this year. A long-range solution to insuring such risk is critically important and this symposium will address these and other important long-term issues.

The symposium will address:

* The Economics of Terrorism Insurance;
* National Security and Terrorism Insurance;
* Developing an Equitable Insurance Program;
* Public and Private Sector Roles for Dealing with Catastrophic Losses;
* The Role of Terrorism Insurance in Reducing Future Losses.

The Symposium begins at 9 a.m. and concludes at 12:30 p.m. and will be held in the Cannon House Office Building Caucus room. Registration and information for the conference is available online at http://www.tci1.org. For more information, e-mail programs@communicationsinstitute.org or call (626) 796-4747.

Topics Trends Catastrophe Natural Disasters