New CEO of CAMICO prepares to take over: changing of the insurance guard.

• Position: Q&A - Interview

Ric Rosario, CPA, CFE is preparing to take the reins as CEO of CAMICO, the nation's largest CPA-owned provider of professional liability insurance for CPAs. He will take over for John A. Dodsworth, CPA, who, in a planned move, will retire June 30, 2009, after having served as CAMICO's chief executive since the company's inception in 1986. California CPA recently sat down with both leaders to talk about the past, present and future of the company and its industry.

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As CAMICO approaches its 25th anniversary, how's business?

Dodsworth: Our policy sales and renewals have been good. However, these are challenging times for insurance companies as the industry has been rocked and the entire financial companies as the industry has been rocked and the entire financial sector severely impacted by recent economic events and losses. CAMICO is impacted to a somewhat lesser degree because of our focus on CPA firms and our mission of providing a stable source of insurance and risk management services to CPAs.

Rosario: These are also dynamic times. Business has generally been good for CPA firms, and CAMICO has benefited from that positive trend. The insurance market has been soft, though, with a lot of insurance companies that don't have experience with accountants liability, the downside of which is a lot of competition from new and inexperienced players in the market. With the recent downturn in the economy, however, the question is, how much will the market change? Will the soft market become a hard market? CAMICO tries to avoid huge swings between soft and hard markets as we strive to provide stability to our policyholders.

What is the most challenging aspect at CAMICO?

Dodsworth: We have a very diverse policyholder base ranging from sole practitioners to firms with more than 500 professionals. Firms do everything from write-up work and tax returns, to public company audits and very sophisticated consulting work. The most challenging aspect of that for me is helping all of those types of firms meet their risk management needs.

Rosario: As CAMICO has grown over the years, it has also become more challenging to get in front of CPAs and get them to see that CAMICO has a unique value proposition in the insurance world--what we call "the CAMICO experience." Getting that message across to larger groups of CPAs is the most challenging aspect for me.

What is the most rewarding?

Dodsworth: Spending time with our policyholders, whether in loss prevention seminars or just visiting with owners regarding what's going on in their practices and what CAMICO can do to help. That makes me--and the company--feel a part of the CPA profession instead of just the insurance business.

Rosario: When someone blames the CPA in an unwarranted of fabricated manner, we deliver our liability expertise, experience, knowledge and resources. We bring all of that to bear in getting the CPA out of the problem. And when we solve the problem, we have a customer forever, because no one does it better than CAMICO.

What are the most common claims CAMICO deals with? How can one avoid having such claims brought against them?

Rosario: Claims stemming from tax return preparation are the most common, representing over half of our claims. They tend to be smaller claims than, say, audit claims, but their frequency is high, which drives up the...