2017 | JGS Insurance - Part 2 

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  1. What’s the Deal with Certificates of Insurance?

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    By Gwenyth Luu, Director – Commercial Lines

    Why are certificates of insurance so universally hated by insurance brokers and risk managers alike?

    Some insurance professionals would just as soon have their teeth drilled without novocaine than deal with these much-maligned documents. Yet if used properly, they provide value as an important tool in the risk manager’s portfolio.

    For the uninitiated, according to Investopedia, a certificate of insurance (COI) is defined as:

    “a document issued by an insurance company/broker that is used to verify the existence of insurance coverage under specific conditions granted to listed individuals. More specifically, the document lists the effective date of the policy, the type of insurance coverage purchased and the types and dollar amount of applicable liability.”

    The problems arise when people assume that certificates of insurance do more than they actually do. They are not an ironclad guarantee of coverage, but they do provide a baseline from which the risk manager, attorney or business owner needs to do his or her own due diligence. For example, a product liability COI can demonstrate coverage for a supplier that is ordering a particular raw ingredient to be used in the manufacturing process. It shows the manufacturer that the supplier had coverage at the time of its issuance.

    The COI contains valuable information about where the insurance was obtained, which broker executed the transaction, the period of time covered by the insurance and the terms and limits of each policy. However, it is not a guarantee of coverage at any particular moment in time. Although insurance was obtained at some point, it is still up to the risk manager or business owner to ensure that the coverage is still valid and will be adequate for the situation at hand. If the risk is considerable, it may be worthwhile to examine the actual policy or obtain additional or more recent documents that demonstrate that the insurance policy is still in effect.

    An insurance endorsement is another form of documentation that may be useful in such cases. The endorsement can be used show the addition, termination, exclusion or alteration of coverage in any way. Since endorsements are issued by the original carrier of the insured, they can provide further detail about the exact terms and conditions under which the coverage is valid. Regardless of their particular content, at the very least they should include the name of the insured, the policy number, and the exact dates of coverage.

    Certificates of insurance may have their limitations, but they are a great starting point to ensure that you have some sort of documentation to help better manage risk in your day-to-day transactions. From there, you should take reasonable measures to ascertain their validity and relevance—particularly if you are working with a new vendor or are a fledgling company that can’t afford even the smallest mistake.

    If you are uncertain about what documentation will provide the assurance you need to feel comfortable with a particular vendor or other party, be sure to call your JGS broker for further assistance. JGS brokers are always available and happy to help determine appropriate coverage for your situation.

     

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  2. Why EPLI is Crucial to Your Business

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    By Meaghan Tyndale-Williams, Vice President – Commercial Lines

    Is your company covered by Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI)?

    If not, you might want to consider it. Over the past twenty years, the number of employment-based lawsuits has increased as employee awareness of fair employment practices has become more widespread. Why you need EPLI insurance will become clear as you consider some of the claims that can be filed against your business.

    Here are just a few examples that may provide the wake-up call you need to see how serious—and commonplace—these exposures can be:

    • An employee vandalizes your bathroom by writing offensive or crude comments on a stall wall and another employee is offended.
    • An employee in the lunchroom tells off-color jokes that offend other employees.
    • You prohibit an employee from returning to work after a medical leave unless the employee has full clearance to perform all job duties.
    • While the most common type of lawsuit results from claims of unfair employment termination, other types of lawsuits are on the rise:
    • Genetic discrimination – for requesting personal or family medical history.
    • Unpaid internships (currently a hot topic on Capitol Hill) – for recruiting workers to perform tasks normally considered part of entry-level employment positions.
    • Gender discrimination – for pay inequities between men and women in the same establishment who perform equivalent tasks under similar working conditions.

    According to statistics on trustedchoice.com, the average court costs and legal fees for claims that are dismissed can top out at $15,000 or more. Cases that are settled out-of-court can set you back $75,000, while those that go to trial can carry a whopping $300,000 price tag or more. It’s enough to bankrupt a company.

    Harassment cases are particularly challenging. Cases often devolve into “he said, she said” scenarios that are virtually impossible to prove. So even if no harassment has occurred, it’s often easier to settle the claim than to fight these lawsuits. In a recent case I have witnessed firsthand, a litigious plaintiff was awarded a sizable $75,000 in damages—even though it was her sixth such claim.

    Your company can follow some simple, common-sense practices to help avoid these lawsuits. The practices shown below are fairly simple and inexpensive to implement:

    • Develop job descriptions for every position so employee expectations and responsibilities are clear.
    • Create an employee handbook that spells out company procedures and conduct policies including specific detail about what constitutes “harassment.”
    • Offer mandatory training sessions to review policies in person and provide an opportunity for Q&A.

    Of course, the best way to safeguard your business is by purchasing EPLI insurance. While workers’ compensation and general liability insurance are mandatory, EPLI is optional, so many business owners are not even aware of its existence. Some agencies do not offer EPLI coverage or offer simple policies from a limited number of carriers. An experienced broker will not only recommend this type of coverage but also present you with a range of options. Premiums will depend on the size of your workforce, the amount of coverage, the number (if any) of prior allegations, and whether your company has anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies in place.

    The plain truth is that there is no possible way to monitor all of your employees’ actions at all times. You have too much to do already, and at a certain point, preparation and trust will need to kick in. To really secure your company’s future in this regard, talk to your JGS agent about EPLI insurance—and seriously consider this important investment.

     

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  3. Peace of Mind Is Priceless

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    By Bernie Cosentino, Vice President – Habitational

    Insuring Your Condominium Or Co-op Apartment

    When it comes to insuring your condominium unit or co-op apartment, just having a “piece of the rock” may not be enough. It’s the peace of mind of knowing you are insured correctly in conjunction with your association’s insurance coverage that will allow you to sleep soundly at night.

    Every homeowners’ association, condominium or cooperative has governing documents including insurance bylaws dictating how the buildings should be insured. Unfortunately, there is quite often ambiguity as it relates to how the building should be insured from the perspective of the association’s insurance policy and what the unit owner or shareholder is expected to insure within their home.

    In an effort to clarify this confusing subject, here are some useful guidelines you can use as a starting point to communicate how your buildings are to be insured and what residents should include in their individual HO6 policies.

    Let’s start by reviewing the three ways documents may mandate how the community is to be insured. They are (1) Bare Walls, (2) Single Entity, and (3) All-In coverage.

    Should the bylaws read that the association is insuring the buildings on a Bare Walls basis in the event of a loss, the building’s insurance policy would cover the damage from the studs out to the exterior of the building. Therefore, the resident’s HO6 would need to cover everything from the studs into the unit, which includes sheet rock, paint, flooring, fixtures and the like.

    If the bylaws call for Single Entity coverage, also known as “original specifications,” this would mean that a covered claim would be the responsibility of the building association from the exterior into the units including walls, flooring, fixtures, and the like as delivered at the time of conveyance by the builder. The resident’s HO6 would need to cover any upgrades, additions, alterations or betterments that the unit owner had put in after delivery by the builder.

    Lastly, All-In coverage has the community’s policy provide coverage for everything mentioned in Single Entity coverage as well as upgrades, additions, alterations or betterments. This is not seen as often in condominium documents as it is in co-op documents. In this case, unit owners or shareholders would not have to carry very much property coverage on their HO6 as it would be provided under the building’s insurance policy.

    In the event of a loss to a unit, replacing the resident’s personal belongings are never the responsibility of the association or co-op. It is essential that unit owners inventory their personal belongings and make sure they have adequate coverage in their individual policies. I have always been an advocate of taking a video of the entire unit, cataloging all of the personal items that may be lost in a fire or other covered-peril loss.

    Let me reiterate that these are all just starting points. Very rarely do the documents spell out how a community is required to be insured. It is very important that the documents are reviewed by the community’s legal counsel as well as insurance agent when making a determination regarding the insurance requirements. Prior to placing coverage, the agent must inform the carrier of his or her determination of the governing documents so all parties involved are on the same page at the time of a property loss. Not only so the community insuring the property is in compliance with its documents, but so it can also inform the residents as to what they are required to insure in their HO6 policies. If the bylaws are very unclear, it may be a good idea to amend the documents in order to provide more clarity to all parties.

    Once all parties are on the same page with how the buildings should be insured, it is important to communicate this information to the residents.

    JGS Insurance Agency, a leader in residential building insurance, has insured associations and condominiums since the 1970s. We always supply our insureds with a document we call a fact sheet and include it with every policy we deliver to the communities we insure. This fact sheet lays out exactly what the association is responsible for insuring and what the residents should be insuring on their HO6 policies.

    Hopefully, this information will go a long way in identifying how your association is insuring your property and what is expected of the residents, all in order to provide everyone with the Peace of Mind they deserve.

     

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  4. Empower Your Passion

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    By Ken Hager, COO

    Preparation, Preparation, Preparation

    Passion is an intense emotion or a very strong feeling about a person or thing or a positive affinity towards a subject. Anyone who knows me knows I have a passion and consider myself blessed because of it. I have a passion for saltwater fishing that has led to a passion for tournament fishing. In tournament fishing, you are putting yourself up against the best-of-the-best of like-minded individuals with the goal of being one of the best that day. While fishing is typically an individual effort, tournament fishing is a team sport where you rely on all team members to do their jobs and “boat the fish.” I typically tournament fish with the same team of 5–7 guys whom I know I can rely on and who have a similar passion as I do.

    We’ve fished a number of tournaments over the years and for many years without much success. I knew we were all good fishermen and didn’t understand the lack of success we were experiencing. We were “weekend warriors,” many times going up against full-time crews, professional mates, and captains with much more time on the water than us. I felt we should be finishing higher or, at the very least, better than other “weekend warriors.” What was it that allowed equally talented people to have greater success than we were having? Was there something they did that we didn’t do, or do as well?

    The answer came to me while walking the docks and watching other crew members getting ready for the next day of tournament fishing. These weren’t guys hanging around shooting the breeze or having a beer and telling jokes. They weren’t treating this like another day out on the water. Fishing, after all, isn’t named catching, is what you often hear. These crews were treating tournament fishing like a professional job and attacking the task with a more logical, professional and dedicated manner than we had been doing. Once I recognized this, I immediately started putting this new philosophy to work. Many times, I found that the answer to our lack of success was preparation, preparation, preparation.

    We usually checked our equipment at the beginning of the season and made changes when something broke or if we noticed something wrong. Now we started checking our lines for nicks or abrasions immediately upon returning to the dock to see what stress, if any, may have occurred in that day’s fishing. Instead of occasionally checking our drags (the amount of pressure you put on a fish when trying to land it), we checked it daily. We made sure all of our connections and knots were properly tied and all of our baits were undamaged and would “swim” like a bait fish once in the water. Preventative maintenance, addressing issues before they became problems, and identifying our team’s strengths and weaknesses would help us towards that winning goal.

    Instead of spending five minutes each day looking at the charts, water temps and currents, we would spend a few days tracking the water currents, movements and temperature changes. We quickly realized that if we saw something at “x” position today that looked favorable, later that day or the next it would most likely have moved to “y” or “z” position. In other words, we started to pay more attention to the details and preparations that would lead us to the outcome we desired. We worked together as a team to do the tedious tasks as well as the exciting part of having a nice fish strike our line and having the real battle begin.

    We find that this is true in our everyday jobs as well. Most people are in their chosen profession because it was something they held an interest in, that they enjoyed doing. Over time, many lose sight of the reason they chose their careers and may become disenchanted. You can coast along and do well, perhaps even getting somewhat ahead and moving up the corporate ladder. But once you rediscover or allow passion and preparation to enter the picture, you will find much more reward and enjoyment in even the dullest aspects of your job.

     

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  5. Protect Your Customers And Your Business

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    By Ross Rutman, Assistant Vice President – Habitational Group

    JGS Seminar On New Food Safety Law

    Companies in the food industry would certainly agree that producing safe products is of paramount importance. How can you make money if you are making your customers ill? Whether it is a hit to a brand’s reputation or a significant drop in sales, you would think businesses would not need more incentives to do the right thing.

    Due to raise in foodborne illnesses and product recalls, President Obama signed into law the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2011. It aims to ensure the US food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it. FSMA were finalized in 2015 and 2016. These new regulations on food safety carry criminal penalties.

    In an effort to keep our clients informed of important issues in a timely manner, JGS Insurance held a seminar — The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) “Bites” — in March of this year to inform companies in the food industry what they need to know to protect themselves. The seminar touched on various FSMA-related topics, including the following:

    • Criminalization of foodborne illness – What can you do to protect your company?
    • Strategic risk transfer – What is an insurance policy after all?
    • Product liability and recall claims – Do you know what to do if it happens to your company?

    The seminar was moderated by Gwen Luu, Vice President of Property & Casualty who concentrates on assessing and managing brand reputations and providing practical and cost-effective insurance solutions.

    The focus of the seminar, Gwen said, was “the current, multi-faceted challenges in assessing risk in the ‘Farm to Fork’ supply chain and how to develop risk management strategies, navigate FSMA compliance, and assist [clients] in staying better informed with a variety of claim scenarios if a simulation someday becomes a reality.”

    The seminar was a huge success and attendees were impressed with the professional lineup of speakers and their presentations.

    Shawn Stevens, a food industry consultant and lawyer, gave a brief history of the food safety revolution that occurred from 1993 to 2017. He then colorfully highlighted the main aspects of the FSMA’s criminal liability provisions — from investigators to swab-a-thons to cold cases — and what companies can do to protect themselves — from self-inspection to knowing the suppliers you work with to buying insurance.

    Wilson Torres and Bart Adelsky, general liability claims professionals with Travelers, outlined the food claim process in general terms. They livened up their presentation with real-life examples of product liability claims. With the insured’s collaboration and timely claims management, Travelers helps their insured protect their business, brand, and reputation to achieve optimal outcomes.

    Product recall insurance was a hot topic. Florian Beerli, Senior Vice President, Product Recall for Weshchester, a Chubb Company, sliced and diced the coverage comparison between Product Withdrawal and standalone Recall Insurance. Florian’s analysis of the multitude of costs associated with product recalls led to a comprehensive discussion of insured events and types of coverage such as defense, loss of profits, and consultant cost left many companies wondering they were properly protected under their risk management program.

    This seminar is just one of the ways JGS Insurance goes beyond the traditional agent-client relationship. We actively seek areas of interest to our clients and offer timely and useful information in a variety of platforms.

     

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  6. Protecting Yourself Against Workplace Injuries

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    By Gwenyth Luu, Director – Commercial Lines

    Nursing and other patient care occupations are among the most difficult career paths. Not only are nurses called upon to provide a high standard of patient care insofar as treatments and medications are concerned, but they often face demanding physical requirements too. Nurses, nursing assistants and orderlies are commonly called upon to lift, support and maneuver patients regularly – even more so as the population ages and many patients live well into their eighties and nineties. And with over two-thirds of the adult population in the U.S. classified as overweight, these physical requirements are more extreme than ever before.

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts that the nursing shortage will reach 1.2 million positions between 2014 and 2022 – despite the growing popularity of nursing as a profession. And according to a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over 500,000 nurses are expected to retire or leave the workforce in the next five years. This confluence of factors will make nursing caseloads and physical demands even greater, further increasing the risk of work-related injuries. When injuries do occur, they are often severe and long-lasting, frequently requiring risky back surgeries and long periods of recuperation. Unless these professional have access to mechanical devices to assist them, it may not be feasible for them to return to work performing the same functions.

    Back in 2003, the nursing profession began to take action against this work hazard by instituting a “Handle With Care” campaign aimed at reducing injuries for nurses required to lift and maneuver their patients. Since then, 11 states have addressed the issue head-on, with legislation aimed at establishing safe patient handling protocols, often involving mechanical hoists and other assistive devices. The legislation typically requires written policies for handling these patients and training for personnel assigned to these tasks. Individual states also have instituted requirements for reporting injuries or for monitoring and oversight of this function. Many other states, citing the tremendous cost for adopting these mechanical lift methods, have strongly resisted developing legislation.

    Because of these risks, it is critical for employers of nurses, aides and orderlies to have adequate worker’s compensation insurance. JGS have dedicated partnership with and expert leader in healthcare. The carrier has a team of consultants and trainers who come with extensive experience as direct-care nurses. With more than 20 years of specialized work with the healthcare industry, these specialists focus on the areas where injuries are most likely to happen and offer a customized plan for your organization based upon “best practices.” As a client of JGS and partnership with JGS’ dedicated carrier, organizations will gain access the following services:

    • Safe Patient Handling and Movement (SPH&M) – accredited full-day workshop
    • Department-specific safety assessments focus on past injury reviews, operational controls, and employee/job observations to identify improvement opportunities.
    • Ongoing assessment of industry trends and advances by the carrier’s team helps keep your organization with the latest regulations and newest products.
    • Industry-specific tools, resources, including patient-assessment tools, caregiver perception surveys, checklists as well as access to a web-based resource keep organizations from having to re-invent the wheel.

     

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  7. Summary Plan Description

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    By Barry Fields, Vice President – Employee Benefits

    ERISA

    The US Department of Labor has been conducting frequent ERISA compliance audits and, in many cases, imposing significant penalties for noncompliance. This should spur employers to make sure that they are in compliance with that law’s plan documentation, disclosure, and annual reporting requirements for all applicable plans.

    Unfortunately, most employers are not in compliance with the Summary Plan Description (SPD) requirements. Why? Many companies mistakenly assume that insurance contracts, certificates of insurance, SBCs, and benefits summaries fulfill the ERISA requirements for an SPD. Those documents do not include the required or recommended provisions that protect the plan, the employer, and plan fiduciaries.

    All group health plans subject to ERISA (and all size groups) are required to provide participants with an SPD. An SPD must be written in a manner calculated to be understood by the average plan participant and must be sufficiently comprehensive to explain the following: the plan’s benefits, its claims review procedures, and the participant’s rights and obligations under the plan.

    A “wrap” document will help meet these obligations. A wrap document is a relatively simple document that “wraps” around the insurance policy, coverage certificate, or plan booklet. The benefits available under the plan continue to be governed by the insurance policy, coverage certificate, or plan booklet, while the wrap document provides the supplementary information necessary to comply with ERISA. In effect, the wrap document fills the gaps left by insurance carriers and third-party administrators.

    The Wrap SPD should describe all of the important plan rules and the benefits available under the plan as well as key information about the plan, including:

    • The plan name
    • The employer’s name, address, and employer identification number (also known as
    • A federal tax identification number)
    • The name, address, and telephone number of the plan administrator
    • The name and address of the plan’s agent for service of legal process
    • The plan number for annual reporting purposes
    • The plan year
    • The source of plan contributions
    • Information about plan trustees
    • A claims procedure
    • Information about eligibility for plan participation
    • A statement of ERISA rights

    In addition to easing compliance with ERISA’s plan document and summary plan description requirements, wrap documents may be used by employers to consolidate employee welfare benefit plans into a single plan, commonly referred to as an “umbrella” or “mega-wrap” plan. Consolidating employee welfare benefit plans into a single plan could reduce the costs associated with filing multiple annual reports, distributing multiple summary annual reports, and amending multiple plans in response to legislative or regulatory changes.

     

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  8. Workers’ Compensation 101

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    By Ryan Hager, Assistant Vice President – Commercial Lines

    The Rates are Not the Rates

    How many times have you heard someone say “workers’ compensation rates are the rates” and you can’t change the pricing? Well, fortunately that is not accurate and there are a variety of ways for you to lower your workers’ compensation premiums.

    Let’s first talk about how the insurance companies develop their pricing models that determine how much money you have to pull out of your checking account. The first step is to take your estimated annual payroll and break it down by class code. After this is accomplished, you take the set rates published by the state and multiply it by your payroll (divided by 100) for that class. The set rates are based per $100 of payroll. The next step in calculating your manual premium is taking this number:

    [(Payroll/100) x Rate] and multiplying it by your experience modification, also known as your experience mod.

    A company’s experience mod calculation is a very complex formula that incorporates a number of different factors. The primary factors are taking the losses from the three prior years (excluding the most recent year) and the corresponding premiums developed. Like most insurance polices, this is your basic loss ratio. The calculation will then take into account the payroll dollars for your company and benchmark them against the industry standards for that class code, the actual losses versus expected losses, frequency versus severity, and a few additional factors. Each one bears a certain weight on the overall calculation of the final experience mod.

    An experience mod of 1.0 is considered industry average. Anything above or below a mod of 1.0 is a debit/credit that directly affects your premium amount. Let’s suppose that you are an ice manufacturer with $1,000,000 in payroll in the class code of 2150 (manufacturing of ice) and have an experience mod of 1.2. In 2017, the published rate in New Jersey for class code 2150 is $10.19 per $100 of payroll. When you divide your payroll by 100 and multiply the result by the published rate and multiply again by the experience mod, you will discover that your “manual rate” comes out to ($1,000,000/100) x $10.19 (rate) x 1.2 (experience mod) = $122,280. The manual rate excludes any forms of debit/credits and any taxes on the policy.

    If your company were proactively managing its workers’ compensation claims and had an experience mod of 1.0, you would only be paying $101,900 in manual premiums [(1,000,000/100) x 10.19 x 1.0]. If your management of these factors and your claims experience is less than the industry average, you can earn a credit modification of up to 40 percent which will reduce your manual rates. A credit modification (a factor less than 1.0) means that your company would be paying up to 40% less than a similar competitor with a higher modification, allowing you to price your products more competitively and gain an advantage over similar companies.

    In addition to proactively managing your losses through various techniques such as return-to-work programs and formalized safety programs, you can achieve lower premiums by having your account properly marketed to various insurance carriers. In the great state of New Jersey, carriers are able to take the manual premium and add (debits) or subtract (credits) up to 25% on top of your manual rates.

    Some workers’ compensation insurers are very hesitant to offer credits to a policy, even when they are warranted. When marketing your account, not only does JGS Insurance have the possibility of finding a company willing to offer you a more competitive price but also one that may be willing to offer you a dividend. With a dividend on your workers’ compensation program, you have the opportunity to earn back a portion of your premium based on your actual losses. The few carriers in the state who offer this solution will provide you with a dividend table, and depending on your loss ratio (total incurred losses/total premium), the table will show what percentage of your total premium you can earn back.

    So while “The rates may be the rates,” not all insurance companies workers’ compensation programs are the same. It is essential that you become proactive in the management of your workers’ compensation exposures, claims, and risk management so that you can best position your insurance program to be offered the most competitive rates, credits, and possibly dividends available in the marketplace.

     

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  9. Does YOUR Website Impact YOUR Insurability?

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    By Meaghan Tyndale-Williams, Vice President – Commercial Lines

    In today’s business world, your website is your calling card. Your customers depend on it to inform themselves about your business and make the critical decision of whether or not to pursue your services. But it is important to keep in mind that your customers are not the only ones evaluating your website on a regular basis. Your underwriter is too, and what your website is saying to customers is very different from what it is saying to your insurance company.

    So what does this mean in terms of maintaining a website that will not only encourage customers to buy your goods or services but also appeal to underwriters who provide the critical support you need to insure your business?

    In short, a challenge. You want to ensure your website is appealing to viewers while also highlighting your business as a low-hazard, safety-conscious operation because the first place an underwriter goes when evaluating a business is its company website.

    Much like a customer, an underwriter is looking at websites to learn about a business. Underwriters will look through company photos, see how long the company has been in business, look at what operations it is involved in, and investigate the geographic areas where it operates, to name a few.

    Your insurance company will be looking to make an educated judgment as to whether it’s worth the risk to insure you, and, of course, for how much. Underwriters have their own point-of-view when reviewing your website, and it is important to understand what they are looking for.

    Do you clearly describe the geographic areas where you do business?

    This is important because some insurance carriers have restrictions on where they can write business. New York, for example, is an undesirable underwriting area for many insurance companies. To avoid having coverage declined, it is smart to list only the areas where your company is currently doing business.

    Are the photos on your website representative of the true nature of your operations?

    Many times, companies will have photos on their websites of discontinued operations. If an underwriter sees photos of certain operations on your website, they will want to underwrite (i.e., charge money) for these operations. You may also get declined because underwriters do not like the operations they see. It is smart to keep your company website current and have the website reflect what your company is doing today.

    Do your photos showcase safe jobsites, clean work environments, well-maintained facilities and products that don’t “scare” an underwriter away?


    Does your company project an air of professionalism and competence?


    From a risk management standpoint, does the website speak to your company culture in terms of employee and jobsite safety, pre-employee screening and employee retention?

    Your underwriter needs to fully understand your business to provide your company with the appropriate coverage. It’s important to remove discontinued operations from your website to avoid being charged additional premiums or declined coverage based on exposures you no longer have. If your website promotes high-risk operations or projects outside of your primary operations, be aware that your insurance company will need specific details about these involvements, which can negatively impact your ability to get coverage. Reviewing and updating your website a few months prior to your insurance renewal date can save you from having to answer a lot of irrelevant questions, deal with price increases, and contend with potential declination’s of coverage.

    If you have questions about your website, your JGS Insurance professional is always ready and able to help you review your website, discuss how it may affect your insurance coverage, and answer any questions.

     

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  10. Meeting People Where They Need To Be Met

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    By Ryan Fleming, Director – Habitational Group

    Now I’m not here to beat anyone over the head with the Bible, but there is a verse that is stuck in the foundation of who I am. I’ve found it to be the answer to almost all things “rapport:”

    I have become all things to all men [people], that I might by all means save some. —I Corinthians 9:22 (NKJV)

    What this verse is basically saying is that in order to properly cultivate relationships, you need to meet people where they are as opposed as to where you want them to be. Let’s let that sink in. This applies to all relationships including with a spouse, child, employee, employer, prospect and client.

    Every one of us has an agenda or to-do list at any given time. That agenda or to-do list may include certain things that need to be accomplished at certain times in order for us to reach whatever goal we have set for ourselves. That being said, too many times we focus intently on the individual items and try to force them to fit into the timeline in front of us. We end up forging through our lists, trying to push the people around us to provide what it is that we need from them in order to complete the task at hand. We find frustration when they don’t react with the level of importance we believe they should be reacting with. We get impatient when they don’t respond to us in a timely manner, and, most importantly, if they don’t agree with the point of view or belief that we are presenting them with (read: trying to shove down their throats).

    This is where a change in perspective can be revolutionary. Understand that people have things they need to accomplish and a timeline in which to accomplish them. Our own to-do list doesn’t necessarily fall into their timeline, especially if we approach them with our own agenda in mind. It’s like trying to jump onto a moving train while walking alongside the tracks. The same disconnect happens if you try to jump off. If you don’t understand the pace of the person you are trying to communicate with, it can be a constant struggle trying to slow them down while you are trying to speed up, or vice versa.

    “Being all things to all people” basically means that in order to be a successful communicator, one must meet people in their “state,” that is, where they are in their day, week and life. Find out what state you need to be in to meet them. Do you need to approach them in a relaxed, worry-free state or do you need to hit them with energy and excitement? Meeting people in their state builds instant rapport and allows communication to flow. If you are able to match their pace, needs can be met and you both may be able to accomplish your collective goals. The technique is called “pacing.” I could go on for days about the intricacies involved, but I will save that for another day.

    I find myself sounding like a broken record whenever I tell my kids, “Other people’s feelings first!” It’s to the point where all I say is “Other…” and they finish the sentence for me. Now, I’m not telling them that their own feelings don’t matter or that they need to be the best doormats they can be as they grow up. I’m simply trying to explain to them that if they consider other people’s feelings before they act, they are more likely to get where they need to go.

    It seems like something we’ve all heard before, but how many of us are actually practicing it with each interaction? How many of us are actually looking to find out what state others are in before we hit them with what we need from them? Taking just a few moments to meet people where they are and match their pace is truly the key to building rapport. Now to take it one step further, imagine how effective this becomes when you make your actual goal meeting people where they are.

     

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