2018 | JGS Insurance 

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  1. Eat Dessert First

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    By Ken Hager, COO

    My father used to tell us all of the time, “Life is uncertain; eat dessert first.” As kids, we really didn’t understand the meaning behind those words, but we were willing to embrace them no questions asked! Mom, however, had other ideas and said your father is talking about an idea, a principle, that you’ll understand someday.

    As I approach the 40th anniversary of my high school graduation, I understand the concept completely. I was talking with a fellow graduate recently, and he was telling me they were looking to have a banner made up in honor of all those who have passed too soon. “Ken, you wouldn’t believe how long that list is and some of the names on it.” Unfortunately I would and do, as I have come to understand the concept many times over in the recent past.

    Most recently, my best friend Joe DeFino passed away from ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Awareness of this disease was raised with the Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014. When that challenge started, neither Joe nor I had any idea of the impact the disease would have on his life, eventually taking it. Joe was an avid outdoorsman who loved camping, hanging around a fire pit, and competing in 5K charity runs. Joe handled this disease with grace and a certain determination to get the most out of life while he still could.

    For Joe, life was certain. He knew he had a very limited time to enjoy everything he loved one last time. I took him to one last Yankee game, twice to see a Grateful Dead tribute band and to local parties around the neighborhood. We went to the Jersey Shore and the restaurants along the shore. With every trip we took, I realized that, for him, this would more than likely be his last time doing something that he loved.

    His friends and I arranged to continue our annual camping trip the week before Thanksgiving and to modify our activities to meet his needs. Joe went the first year with leg braces and a cane and sat around the fire pit laughing and singing along with his friends. We eliminated the Saturday afternoon hike, but otherwise, we did all the usual things, and Joe made his infamous Dutch oven peach cobbler dessert. The next year, he and his friends were determined to allow him to enjoy one last trip, and we moved from tents to cabins and took him in his hospital bed and wheelchair. It was hard to fathom how quickly he had deteriorated over a year’s time. The third year was this past November, and he was no longer capable of going no matter how hard we tried.

    Joe’s passing and his limited time to enjoy the things he loved all of his life made me think often of my dad’s words, “Life is uncertain; eat dessert first.” What he was telling us was that for most people, you don’t know when your time will come.  The end can be swift and unrelenting or slow and agonizing. Don’t wait until it’s too late to make time for the people you love or the things that you love to do. Enjoy the little and the big things every day, take a moment and reflect on the good and bad things in your life and celebrate the good.

    It’s all too easy to get caught up in life, in the addicting passing of time, in staring at your phones or tablets or television or other distractions. If you find yourself in a panic because you left your cell phone home and feel disconnected from the world, I submit to you that this is the time to actually reconnect to the things that matter. Take a moment to look around you and let yourself relax. Smile at a stranger, help somebody for a moment. It could be as easy as holding a door open or helping somebody carry a package or, God forbid, letting somebody get in front of you on the highway.

    You will often hear me speak of finding your passion and making it a part of your life. Do something this week that you love but haven’t found time to do recently. When you reconnect with your passion, all aspects of your life including your career will be improved. The little things in life will become larger if you allow them to. Life is uncertain; eat dessert first!

    Joseph DeFino passed away on June 1, 2018, and is survived by his wife, Chris, and his two sons, Zachary and Josh.

  2. Why is Trade Credit Protection Critical?

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    By Gwenyth Luu, Director – Commercial Lines

    Every business owner knows that they need to have insurance policies in place to cover their risks and liabilities. Some even have policies covering situations in which their supply lines or logistical capabilities become compromised, with the intent of keeping the business running. What happens, however, if your biggest customer defaults on payments and your company suddenly loses a huge chunk of revenue? That is a question that many CEOs and business owners, unfortunately, do not ask themselves until it is too late. Those that do ask that question often don’t have a good answer. So what can be done to avoid that situation?

    Trade Credit Insurance exists precisely for those situations. These policies are better known to companies who do business internationally or are located outside of the United States, but such policies are becoming more and more popular here as well. Credit insurance allows companies to protect their domestic and international accounts receivable against unexpected bad debt loss due to insolvency, protracted payment (i.e., slow payment) from customers, and political risk.

    These policies cover either all or the majority of your receivables, so you won’t need to get a separate policy for each customer. Claims can be filed when customers become insolvent or after a preestablished amount of time (in the event of a slow payment).

    There are many advantages to trade credit insurance:

    • Safeguard one of your largest assets— protects against a devastating loss to your accounts receivables
    • Support your sales goals—expand into new and unfamiliar markets much more comfortably by extending large lines of credit than you might normally offer
    • Strengthen your credit risk management controls—credit insurance allows you to cap exposure to bad debt losses

    Let’s consider a couple of scenarios which make evident the value of this type of policy:

    A manufacturing company seeks to expand its sales with customers but isn’t comfortable offering higher internal credit limits. This company could turn to a Trade Credit Policy in order to cover its customers and, thus, increase credit limits, grow revenues, and deliver more profits.

    A wholesale chemical and materials company secured its receivables with Trade Credit Insurance, which allowed them to provide more transparency to its lenders and, thus, gained the ability to improve their lending terms.

    Utilizing economic studies and informational databases, you can determine how creditworthy your customers may be before you extend to them. That will preemptively alleviate some of your risk, allowing the policy itself to take care of anything that slips through the cracks.

    With coverage in place, you can conduct business as usual with the added benefit of value credit analysis and collection services. Don’t let a client default put your company at risk. Take proactive action and find out whether your company could benefit from a trade credit policy today.

     

  3. New Jersey’s Equal Pay Act

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    By Barry Fields, Vice President – Employee Benefits

    Five Things to Know

    If you are familiar with New Jersey antidiscrimination laws, you know that it is illegal to discriminate “in any way in the rate or method of payment of wages to any employee because of his or her sex.” This protection has now been extended with the passage of the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act—effective July 1, 2018—to “any protected class” under the law. This includes, among other things, such characteristics as race, national origin, age, marital status and disability.

    Now would be a good time to ensure your pay practices are in compliance. Here are five important facts that you should consider to fully understand the importance of this new law:

    State Business

    Do you conduct business with the State of New Jersey? Consider whether you contract with the state for “qualifying services” or “public works” as there are new reporting requirements for such contracts to ensure compliance with the new law. Information such as gender, race, job category, hours worked and compensation must be provided to the state for each employee.

    Treble Damages

    Employers that were found guilty of discriminating in the past were required to pay money damages to right the wrong. The new law takes a more punitive approach by allowing prevailing litigants to recover “three times any money damages[.]” This should make ensuring your company’s compliance a top priority.

    Some Pay Differences Are Still Permissible…

    You would think that paying people differently while performing similar tasks is now prohibited under the law. However, the Equal Pay Act recognizes certain instances where pay differentials are acceptable. For instance, paying employees differently based on a merit or seniority system is permissible. And the state has created a “bona fide factors” test that would also allow for differing pay rates for similar tasks, though seeking out legal advice would be wise before proceeding under that test.

    But Don’t Cut Pay!

    Employers may think that one workaround to this new law is just to cut the pay of the higher-paid employee down to the rate of the lower-paid employee. Not so fast. As stated in the Equal Pay Act, “[a]n employer … shall not reduce the rate of compensation of any employee in order to comply with this[]” new law.

    Back, Back, Back,…

    No, this is not a home run call. This refers to the fact that, under the new law, employees who prevail in a pay discrimination claim may be eligible for up to six years of back pay. This is all the more reason to comply with the Equal Pay Act.

     

    Employers Need to Prepare

    As noted, the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act went into effect on July 1, 2018. It is important to be thorough in order to ensure compliance with this new legal mandate and minimize the costs associated with future litigation by employees and the negative attention that may result from a challenge to your company’s pay practices.

    Your organization should take steps to ensure that, unless the exceptions noted above apply, your existing pay practices and policies related to compensation result in equal pay for employees who do substantially similar work. This should involve a privileged pay audit where you can determine whether your company has any troubling pay disparities and, if so, take steps to remedy any differences that could be attributed to membership in a protected class.

     

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  4. Remarketing Your Insurance

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    By Ryan Hager, Assistant Vice President – Commercial Lines

    If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it 1,000 times. I’m sitting across the table from a prospective client who wants me to quote their insurance. They want me to go back and go to the marketplace (and approach the same markets their current broker has approached) and bring back a customized proposal that is slightly less than what they are paying now. They see this process as an opportunity to show my value.

    What most people are shocked to learn is that this is the least important part of my job and the least effective way to save money. Before you stop reading because you think I am out of my mind (I am, but just not with this), you need to understand how an insurance company comes to their final pricing. There are a few different categories that dictate your final pricing, and only one or two of them is within your control. The factors that are out of your control include the state of the marketplace, global losses, reinsurance costs, your industry and the values of what you are insuring. What you can control are your losses and the way you are marketing your program.

    Does your current plan to lower the cost of your insurance go any further than remarketing your insurance? If you are currently relying on this method to control your premiums, I can guarantee you that, yes, you are currently overpaying on your insurance. The only way to take control of your insurance program is to do two things:

    1. Install Controls
    2. Change the Process

    By installing risk management programs unique to your company’s risk, you will mitigate the insurance company’s exposure to claims, which allows them to be more aggressive in their pricing. The only investment involved with implementing these loss control programs is the time associated with implementing them. Not only will the company benefit from implementing these programs by looking at their bottom line, but at the end of the day, the employees benefit from working in a safer work environment that allows them to return home in the same condition they left it in the morning.

    Once you develop and implement the controls needed to help mitigate risks in your workplace, it is time to change the process in which your insurance is marketed. Unfortunately, gone are the days when my grandfather would take an underwriter out to lunch and get a deal done on a napkin. With the advancement of technology, knowledge has become power when it comes to an insurance company’s underwriting guidelines. As a result of this, it is imperative to start the renewal process at least four months prior to expiration and to provide underwriters with a detailed narrative of what controls have been implemented that warrant lower premium rates. When you are marketing your insurance in this fashion, you are putting yourself in the driver’s seat, whereas previously, you were put in a position of being beholden to the marketplace and its rates. Implementing these measures is the only way to see a significant change in the value of your insurance program.

     

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  5. Proactively Thinking

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    By Ken Hager, COO

    What does it mean to be proactive? Being proactive requires advanced thought and preparation, something that many of us don’t take the time to implement. Why is being proactive more important than being reactive? Which one do you classify yourself as?

    I like the Dictionary.com definition of proactive:

    “1) serving … to control an expected occurrence or situation, especially a negative or difficult one; 2) anticipatory.”

    The opposite, of course, is to be reactive: waiting for things to occur before responding, or behavior that is not internally motivated but manifests in response to a situation or the actions of others. Let me give you a few quick examples of why proactive activity is the better choice, although most people by default seem to be reactive.

    As I explained in an earlier article in this publication, I am a boater/fisherman who loves being out on the water as often as possible. The only problem with being involved in water activities is the real possibility that you may find yourself in a situation beyond your control that could very well be life threatening. I like to travel anywhere from 20 to 125 miles offshore in pursuit of my passion. As I often tell my crew members, make sure we have everything we could possible need for this trip as there aren’t any convenience stores out there that we can run into and pick up supplies. In a situation like this, you definitely want to be proactive and think of every possible need that may come up ahead of time and make sure you have it — and, when possible, a spare — on board.

    I always tell Nelson, who works on my engines, “If it needs to be done, just do it. You don’t even have to ask me.” The last thing I want is to be 120 miles offshore, have an engine failure, and not be able to get back to shore just because I put off doing a recommended service.

    I had just such a situation this past September when my crew and I decided to go to Block Canyon to hunt down tuna, about 140 miles away from the dock. We fished all afternoon and throughout the night and into the late morning of the next day, with the intent of leaving right after lunch to be home by dark.

    We didn’t make it. About 125 miles from home, I lost a transmission on one of my engines. Instead of being able to travel 30–35 mph to return home, we could only go 7 mph. What should have taken us 4 1/2 hours ended up taking us 15 hours (this after being on the water for 28 hours).

    Naturally, as we plodded along, the wind started to build and the seas kicked up waves to 10-footers. We didn’t have the ability to run out of the way. It was a very unpleasant 6 hours of the 15-hour return trip. We made it home — tired, aggravated, extremely late, but safe.

    The next day back at the dock, I went over all of our pretrip arrangements and all of our preparations to see what we could have done differently. Turned out we had plenty of supplies, food, water, and everything else we needed to spend an extra day out there, so that worked out. What I hadn’t done was give any thought to spot-checking or servicing the transmission. It had never occurred to me.

    When the transmission guy came to the dock to repair the one transmission, I instructed him to replace it on both engines. “But why would you do that if the starboard transmission is working and hasn’t demonstrated any problems?” he asked. I explained that I was a firm believer in proactive measures, and since both transmissions were installed on the same day and had an equal amount of hours on them, it was only a matter of time before the other one decided to go as well.

    After he replaced the port transmission and then double-checked that I still wanted to go ahead with the starboard one (after showing me the invoice for the cost of the port one), I still gave the go-ahead. Once he took it apart, he called me immediately and said, “It turns out that was a great thought on your part.” This transmission had the same wear problem as the other, and it was a matter of days or weeks at the most before I would have found myself in the same situation.

    The original repair and aggravation were a result of my reactive thinking, but the second replacement was proactive. By being proactive, I saved myself and my crew from being caught offshore and limping home again, possibly being caught in God-knows-what conditions. Being proactive saved me time, aggravation and possible additional costs by treating a potential problem before it became an actual issue.

    It’s the same thing with everything we take on in life, much like a conscious decision that JGS Insurance made as a company a few years back. My brother Vinnie and I sat around a table and reviewed our entire operations as a company. We realized that we had been a very reactive entity, both internally as well as externally to our customers. As a result, we weren’t prepared for situations that we could have or should have been ready for. We were losing customers and business due to a lack of forethought and doing business the same way for over ninety-five years.

    We made the decision to completely change the way we do business and put into place proactive services for our customers. We developed time lines and service plans that extended from eighteen months to five years in some circumstances. We retrained our employees and brought on additional professionals to help us implement our vision. We are still early in the change process, but to date, our customers and our employees have a greater sense of satisfaction and accomplishment than when we just reacted.

    If you want to experience the difference between reactive thinking and proactive planning, reach out to one of the professionals here at JGS. We would be happy to sit down and discuss our services and how we can help you adjust your planning and outcomes.

     

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  6. Foreign Supplier Verification Program

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    By Gwenyth Luu, Director – Commercial Lines

    Americans want assurances the food they’re consuming is safe. It’s estimated that 15 percent of the country’s food supply, including half of fresh fruit, 20 percent of vegetables, and up to 80 percent of seafood that’s consumed in this country is imported. Until the recent passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) — which was designed to overhaul the safety of the US food supply — there were few assurances that the food products being imported from foreign suppliers were safe. In addition to creating new standards for foreign suppliers, FSMA imposes new requirements on all domestic food companies as well.

    FSMA was first enacted in January 2011 in response to the estimated 48 million Americans, or 1 in 6, who are struck with foodborne illnesses each year. This leads to approximately 128,000 hospital stays and 3,000 deaths, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s why strict food import requirements have been implemented by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure significant food safety improvement on both domestic and imported food products.

    FSMA has led to huge changes to the nation’s food security and safety. The FDA has shifted its focus from addressing foodborne illnesses from reaction to prevention.

    One of the new requirements under FSMA is that, beginning on May 30, 2017 (with only some exceptions), domestic importers of human and animal foods are required to develop and implement a Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP), designed to verify that all food products entering the United States satisfy US safety standards.

    Companies purchasing food from overseas must identify and evaluate known or foreseeable hazards for the foods they import to ensure that their suppliers are controlling for any biological, chemical and physical hazards which are reasonably likely to occur. Biological hazards include such things as parasites and disease-causing bacteria; chemical hazards include things such as pesticides, drug residues, toxins, illegal food dyes or additives; and physical hazards include things such as plastics, metal shavings or glass shards.

    Any food processor or importer bringing food into the United States from overseas must follow specific processes to import these food products. In all cases, importers will be required to review and assess their suppliers’ food safety programs to ensure that their suppliers are adequately controlling for known hazards. Depending upon the risk of the product at issue, these efforts might also involve doing third-party audits on the foreign supplier.

    Such audits might include a walk-through of a food processing site, reviews of good manufacturing practices, an assessment of a supplier’s quality control programs, the foreign company’s recall plan and other things to ensure the foods that are reaching the United States are safe for consumers.
    Although there isn’t an insurance product available to ensure that your FSVP will be compliant with the regulatory requirements, there are insurance products available to protect you in the event that you or a supplier is forced to conduct a recall for product contamination or other reasons. JGS Insurance can help you assess your company’s relative food safety risk and design the product recall insurance policy that is right for your situation.

    With that said, there are other ways to manage risk as well. The risk of any potential recall decreases dramatically if a company can achieve and also maintain compliance with the new FSVP regulations. JGS Insurance has partnered with industry experts, such as Food Industry Counsel LLC, the only legal and consulting firm in the world which advises the food industry exclusively. In addition to obtaining or enhancing your recall insurance coverage, take advantage of this opportunity to let the experts help you develop and implement a FSVP program that will withstand regulatory scrutiny. Adopting this strategy can help you reduce and then control your risk substantially.

     

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  7. Workplace Drug Testing in the Age of Legalized Marijuana

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    By Eric Wokas, Risk Control Consultant

    According to the US Food and Drug Administration, marijuana is a controlled substance. Other federal agencies including OSHA and nongovernmental groups such as workers’ compensation underwriters all support firm and consistent testing and regulation.

    However, this is all changing with the expanding legalization of medical cannabis and adult-use recreational marijuana.

    Marijuana is now legal in nine states, Washington, DC, and perhaps within the next two years, New Jersey and several other states. This means that soon, more than one in four American adults will be able to eat, drink, smoke or vape marijuana as they please.

    Employers have always been able to test job applicants and employees for the presence of marijuana in their systems. If a company had a firm drug policy in place, they could discipline or fire you.

    Now, the employer’s problem is how to handle marijuana testing and marijuana use during work hours. As noted by attorneys Timothy P. Van Dyck and Nathaniel Nichols at Edward Wildman Palmertate, “this uncertain regulatory scheme places employers in the delicate position of attempting to comply with divergent laws while maintaining order and safety in the workplace.”

    The dramatic developments of legal medical and recreational marijuana, and the resulting focus on testing employees for marijuana, provide an important opportunity to reevaluate all workplace drug-testing practices and to update drug-testing procedures — not only for marijuana but for other substances both legal and illegal.

    Employers should conduct competent legal reviews of their drug-free workplace policies and programs by consulting attorneys who are familiar with applicable federal, state and local laws. When developing a drug-free workplace policy, employers should be aware that the presence of THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) in the body may not indicate someone is presently impaired. THC can be detected for several days — or even weeks, if the employee is a “frequent user.” This is important because as part of your policy review, you need to articulate whether you wish to ban all employee drug use or merely impairment.

    Make sure you are prepared to consistently follow your stated procedures.

    Make sure you have communicated your policy to all employees and clearly state what is expected of them.

    Train your managers about confidentiality relating to sensitive employee information — including drug-test results and requests for accommodations for medical conditions for which marijuana is prescribed (especially under state law).

    If you choose to have a zero-tolerance policy, you should be prepared to answer additional questions: How will you handle employee recreational use that is permitted by law? Will you look to federal law to justify a true zero-tolerance policy? Are you an organization that has federal contracts? How difficult will it be to recruit candidates in a tight labor market?

    If your company is willing to accept a THC-positive reading, there are a number of efforts underway to develop an accurate method — akin to the Breathalyzer for alcohol — to measure actual marijuana impairment. Such a test would be useful not only for employers but also for police and prosecutors trying to determine what constitutes driving under the influence of marijuana.

    So what do you do when someone tests positive?

    While termination is still an option, when you consider the costs of employee turnover, support through an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is often the most cost-effective solution. An EAP may include confidential access to treatment, changing the employee’s job temporarily if the employee is treated while remaining at work, or reintegration into the workplace after successful treatment.

     

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  8. It’s All A Bunch of B.S.!

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    By Ryan Fleming, Director – Habitational Group

    We’ve all heard stories involving feats of superhuman strength, bravery or intelligence where people were able to lift a car to free a trapped child or run into a burning building. The stories are incredible and most times unbelievable, but yet they happened. How is it that people, in certain situations, can be more than their everyday selves? What is it that happens inside of these people to allow them to perform so well when the moment demands?

    The same questions are often asked regarding top performers in business, in life or uber entrepreneurs. Successful people seem to have the ability to find success everywhere and there are always those entrepreneurs that come up with what seems to be the best ideas at the best times. The fact of the matter is that there isn’t any secret sauce or magic DNA that allows these people to lift cars, crush business or make a new idea work. The fact is, they have a reason to act, build, create or grow that is stronger than the reasons telling them not to. They have an incredible Belief System. A belief system that tells them there is no option to fail because the end result is clear in their mind and bigger than the hurdles in front of them.

    Belief system should be synonymous with the word hunger. Both are terms used often to describe someone’s desire to accomplish whatever they are focused on, but belief systems aren’t normally as concrete as the term hunger is. Hunger comes from our gut telling us that our body needs nutrition. It’s a primal internal urge that is only satisfied when we feed it. It persists no matter how hard we try to suppress it in times of dieting or fasting. This urge is ingrained so deep into our very fiber that it’s absolutely undeniable. We need our belief system to mirror our hunger. If it’s ingrained deep enough into our fiber, we can accomplish what we need to for an extended period of time.

    Every moment of every day, we have decisions to make in order to move towards progress or risk falling behind. Life is tough, work is hard, you’re tired, blah blah blah… All of the former will try to tell you to take that break or that you’ve worked hard enough for the time being to reward yourself. Without something deep within that tells you you’re not done yet or that there’s more to do, give or say; you will struggle to keep moving forward.

    In order to develop your own personal B.S. you need to find clarity. What is it that you are trying to accomplish for the long term?

    Gain a clear vision of what you want/need with clear measurable concrete milestones. Write it down or set up something visual to remind you. You’ll be able to dive into the details of how you’re going to accomplish it consistently on a daily basis. Vision boards work for some while others simply need to throw a picture on the fridge. Whatever works for you, but make it visual or tangible. If you know the destination clearly, it’s much easier to plot your course. And, as much as you may hate it, ask someone to hold you accountable the whole way. Accountability can redirect you in the toughest of times.

    We can talk about this B.S. all day, but it only works if you strive to develop it. Your goals don’t need to be perfect. They just need to be there. And by all means…ACT on them. Action beats perfection all day.

     

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  9. Wellness in the Workplace

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    By Alicia Ambrose, Marketing Associate

    In every aspect of life one can only perform to the best of one’s ability when all aspects of the mind, body and spirit are nurtured. Today’s forward-thinking companies understand this and realize their strength is found in their team. The happier and healthier, both physically and emotionally, the team members are as individuals, the more productive the company will be as a whole.

    Workplace wellness activities are proof that companies care about their employees. However, workplace wellness should not only consist of flu shots and blood pressure readings. That’s why our company has initiated a number of unique strategies to benefit our employees this year.

    STAND UP FOR YOUR HEALTH

    Our brand-new office space within Bell Works came complete with standing desks, a perk most of us had never seen or had before. According to an article in a Harvard Health publication, studies show that after a meal, blood sugar levels return to normal faster on days people spend more time standing. And standing, rather than sitting, may reduce the risk of shoulder and back pain. Other potential health benefits of a standing desk are based on the finding that long hours of sitting are linked with a higher risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer such as the colon or breast cancers and premature death, the report states.

    We have over 65 on-site employees in our office. Many are also taking advantage our building’s enclosed perimeter which allows them to walk on their breaks and lunch hours no matter the time of year or the weather. Employees who take these daily walks can add 2,600 steps and 1.16 miles to their day!

    FEEL THE BURN

    In January we partnered with Arrival CrossFit based out of Newark to bring strength training classes to our office. They offered twice weekly workouts with their coaches after work on the building’s large indoor turf area. They brought all the equipment necessary for a great work out: medicine balls, dumb bells, jump ropes and kettle bells. They took us through an hour-long full body strength training workout. Participants were able to scale the workout based on their level of fitness.

    NAMASTE AFTER YOUR WORK DAY

    We also partnered with Jennifer Hansen, a local yoga instructor whose company Metta Yoga NJ brings fun yoga classes to unique spaces. We incorporated an hour-long, weekly yoga class combined with guided meditation. These classes were done on the indoor turf after work, allowing participants to refresh and revitalize after a day spent at their computers.

    WISHFUL SHRINKING

    In February we initiated an 8-week nutrition challenge with a local gym in Colts Neck called Aspire Fitness. There were 23 employees from our office who participated. Participants had to keep weekly food diaries, accounting for everything they ate each day which were then evaluated weekly by our fitness and nutrition coach who gave suggestions on making healthier food choices and menu planning.

    We held weekly “Accountability Meetings” with our coach, where we met as a group to discuss anything nutrition and fitness related. We shared our triumphs and struggles from recipes, to the most efficient way to meal prep to the healthiest, best tasting cauliflower pizza crust.

    To add a quantitative factor to our challenge, the participants were weighed at the start, midpoint and end of the nutritional challenge using an InBody scale which provides a total body composition analysis, something that is essential to completely understand a person’s health and weight. Traditional methods of assessing health, such as BMI, can be misleading. Going beyond your bathroom scale, body composition analysis breaks down your body into four components: fat, lean body mass, minerals and body water.

    We turned our challenge into a bit of a competition; who was able to lose the most amount of body fat without losing muscle mass. When our challenge ended, combined we lost a total of 106 pounds of fat! The winner of our challenge only had a 1 pound difference on their bathroom scale. Which proves the point we’ve all heard before: bathroom scales don’t tell the whole story!

    A HEALTHY CONVENIENCE

    Our company has also partnered with FitFoodNJ, a company based in Spring Lake, who stocks our refrigerator weekly with fresh, healthy, home cooked meals which employees can purchase. The meals are prepared with fresh ingredients from local farms and serve as a great convenience in our office.

    All of our work wellness initiatives have given our employees an opportunity to take ownership of their health and has helped to boost employee morale. Having these programs accessible and available at work is an immeasurable benefit. After all, the greatest wealth is your health.

     

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  10. Association Funding

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    By Ross Rutman, Assistant Vice President – Habitational

    Is your Association properly funded? Most likely it is not! Funding Community Association operations is the most vital responsibility of every Association Board, yet so many Associations struggle with this. Proper oversight of day-to-day operations as well as long-term projects provides peace of mind to the owners and the Association that there will be adequate funding to run the community effectively. Businesses in New Jersey are required to respond to a data breach quickly

    Board members have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure Association funds are properly allocated. A logical and realistic budget must be created using actual expenses and Reserve Study guidelines. A Reserve Study is a report (typically completed by a specialist or an engineer) that takes a deep dive into all aspects of an Association and its responsibilities, especially large-scale issues such as roof replacement, road paving or other large expenditures. A Board might see a domino effect if they fail to get a Reserve Study in place or if the study is not followed or updated as time goes on. Association property runs the risk of falling into disrepair, which may result from a Board’s bad management or lack of oversight on the community.

    Typically, maintenance fees are allocated to paying everyday/reoccurring expenses or major repairs/replacements. There are basically two types of funds you will deal with in your Association. The day-to-day operations should be taken care of by your operating fund. The large-scale or long-term projects are handled by the reserve fund. Consider how this setup is similar to how you most likely use your household checking and savings accounts.

    Operating fund: This fund is used to pay for the services that help carry out the day-to-day operations of the Association. These include but are not limited to the following:

    • The most expensive contracted services such as landscaping, snow removal, property management and lifestyle services, pool expenses, general maintenance of common areas, security services, and of course insurance.
    • Office expenses (paper, toner, postage, etc.)
    • Accounting
    • Utilities
    • Legal Fees

    The actual fees for one year will be a good indication of the next year’s proposed budget. Of course, it’s wise to keep expenses to a minimum and focus on necessary costs and actions.

    Reserve fund: This fund is used for large-scale or long-term projects, such as replacement and/or repair of Association property. This money typically has strict criteria for how it can be used based on Association rules and regulations and bylaws. The best way to look at the reserve fund is to understand that it is used to pay for expenditures that do not occur on an annual basis. Please keep in mind there could be hundreds of such projects, and every Association is unique, however, some examples of reserve fund uses are:

    • Roof replacement or painting of common buildings (i.e., condominiums, clubhouse)
    • Work on amenities, such as the community pool
    • New playground equipment
    • Fence replacement for common areas
    • Major landscaping projects
    • Construction or major renovations for road and sidewalk projects

    Remember to check your Governing Documents and Reserve Studies!

    As a Board member you have several important roles. But if you start with proper funding, the other tasks will certainly come more easily. It is important to have money set aside for major expenditures. Although a special assessment may still be required, in many cases they can be avoided. Keep in mind all the potential issues that take place along the way; some are predictable while other issues like to catch us by surprise. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail, especially when dealing with Association funding!

     

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