Hosted by: Jake Marcus and Stephen Marcus of Allcock & Marcus, with Special Guests, Craig Kobel and Jordan Mulbarger of Strategic Claim Consultants
Are you a condominium association manager or board member seeking guidance on effectively managing insurance claims and preparing your community for unforeseen catastrophes? Allcock & Marcus invites you to join our upcoming Marcus Hour, where industry experts from Strategic Claims Consultants, Craig Kobel and Jordan Mulbarger, will provide valuable insights and strategies for navigating the complexities of insurance claims and disaster preparedness within your community.
Key Topics to Be Covered:
- First-Party and Third-Party Insurance Claims: Understand the essential differences between first-party and third-party insurance claims and how to handle them effectively.
- Preparing for Catastrophes: Learn how to develop a comprehensive disaster preparedness plan for your condominium community to mitigate risks and ensure residents’ safety.
- Claims Review and Insurance Policy Analysis: Gain insights into the process of reviewing insurance claims and policies to maximize coverage and minimize financial losses.
Expert Panel Discussion: Hear from experienced professionals in the field who will share real-world case studies and best practices.
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This is, I believe the ninth episode. And we have members from strategic claims consultants Jordan Mulbarger and Craig Cobel.
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And this should be a pretty informative session. It’s a dealing with issues that no, community association is.
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I’m immune from, and that is disasters, insurance, condo insurance claims, all of that.
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And we’ll get into the nitty gritty of it. I will discuss it from a 10,000 foot view down to what you got to do with your specific specific policies that you have and kind of had an, how to navigate the claims process.
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So just to start out, my name is Jake Marcus. I’m here with Stephen Marcus, the co host of the Marcus Hour, as well as as well as our special guest, Jordan Mulbarger.
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And Craig Kobel and thanks Jordan for joining us today.
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I think Craig is, muted.
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Yeah.
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Oh, there you go.
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So all good.
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I am. Yep. Yeah. Thanks for having us, Stephen for sure.
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We’re looking forward to the discussion today.
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Yeah, this should be a good.
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Okay, and they have only comments I wanna make is that So, strategic claims consultants are a company that, Jake started doing business with.
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With one of his, I believe, Miami, clients, And.
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Nice. I know that Jordan and Craig, I believe, are both from Tampa Bay. And the company headquarters is in Atlanta.
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But, they have some interesting approaches and in terms of dealing with insurance coverage is and all that.
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And, but I think the overriding reason why I think this will be of interest to people in New England.
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Is that Yeah, Florida. Seems to be always ahead of the curve. In good times and then bad and with what was soon Somewhere out even though there are some great carriers and greater justice for the carriers is wrongful the Nile of claims in Florida is wrongful.
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The Nile of claims in Florida delays and claims. The problems that citizens the state run florida plan is having and then ultimately even, increases in the premiums, but also cancellations and all.
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But I think they can help us see the future. But I think they can help us see the future, in the Northeast and, guide us through, what they’ve seen and how they’ve dealt with the claims, down, I believe they do work.
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Yeah, across the country, but, they’re particularly situated to know a whole lot about what’s going on in Florida.
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Yeah, and to that end, yeah, a lot of what we we’ll see. And a company that strategic claims consultants will generally be dealing with.
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Is catastrophes of all sorts. And that’s kind of why we want to.
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In this session discuss. What you can do before catastrophe strikes as far as insurance as far as condo association preparedness plans for catastrophe.
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And kind of bringing in a strategic claim consultant’s group. To help with navigating, strategizing before and after the claim.
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5 of the claim, bringing in the proper vendors to, or experts to assist with. Issues that arise from the type of claim you’re dealing with.
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And then ultimately settling or resolving the issue, which that’s where our experts Jordan and Craig, will come in and kind of help with, navigating that.
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And yeah, I mean, just disasters generally can vary from. Up in the northeast a winter storm florida hurricane is the most common i think that we come across but you can also have pipe bursts.
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You could have blizzards, fire, tornadoes, hail. Just general power outages.
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Even we Jordan and Craig can also deal with. Construction defect issues and and kind of navigating a policy from there.
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So it’s a it kind of it casts a wide net and then once you get into the nitty gritty it can it can kind of that’s where the experts come in and help us out.
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I’ll add 2 things and then turn it over to Jordan and correct the 2 things there. Jake list that a lot of things that happened in the northeast one he didn’t mention where I stands Oh, I stands, have become much more regular.
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They resulted probably about 10 years ago with CAU and insurance and then other carriers all coming up with these, per unit deductibles for water claims partly because they were getting destroyed with thousands and thousands of claims from from from ice.
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The tiny patches were very active in the community associations institute in England, the, New England chapter has an office and Wellesley, Massachusetts.
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There are offices down in chapters out in Florida and in at Atlanta And say I does sell a publication, and I’ll mess up the name, but something like.
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How to prepare for a disaster. Which could be of help as well but that all said yeah we’ve done a filibuster for 7 min let’s turn it over to Jordan and Craig
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Yeah, thanks for the introduction, guys. I don’t even know how to follow up with that.
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Thanks for the kind words. So I’ll just dive in a brief overview about our firm and what we do and then we’ll dive into the nitty gritty details of and of the insurance world.
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So strategic claims consultants is a large loss insurance consulting for awesome has public adjusters or a nationwide firm we have offices in aana, Craig and I are based in the Tampa, Florida area.
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We have Charlotte, New Orleans, New York, our reach pretty much goes anywhere in the country.
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Our reach pretty much goes anywhere in the country. Craig and myself are usually always on an airplane.
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Craig and myself are usually always on an airplane or always, Craig and myself are usually always on an airplane or always traveling for work along with the rest of our our main goal is to always make sure the insurance becomes identified and make sure that we can swiftly resolve a case without, a claim going to legal and just make sure that condo associations nationwide just return whole and As we all
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know, every condo association has a different DNA. A different, a different footprint that makes each situation unique along with every claim you deal with.
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So. Every policy state you have to prove your loss when you have a large loss it’s very important to make sure you document the claim correctly.
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You hit all aspects of communication on the clam correctly and pretty much put. In the association in position to succeed and kinda get through the tough times that we know as insurance claims.
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So, The next slide here, what do we got?
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Yeah, so yeah, we, yeah, we kinda just 3 into the fire there, but yeah, we’re gonna, do quick introductions for Jordan and Craig.
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Jordan’s the national director. National Director of Client Partnerships. At strategic claims consultants and as, he kind of gave the, gave the overview.
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Deals with things nationwide but since since Since meeting Jordan, I’ve seen He’s been telling me he’s flying out to Hawaii, out to Texas.
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He was up here in New England for a hurricane that actually just missed us but he was, always on the move and, always developing, you know, building up these.
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These, these, clients and, and getting in the right spots where, disasters are heading, and, and to help out the, the policy.
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And making the insurance whole, he’s an FSU guy. He’s an FSU guy.
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I’m a I’m a you my Amy guy. So, his team’s doing better this year than us, but, you know, at least at least.
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You get lucky every now and then. So congratats to the novels at least so far.
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Did Craig have any? Experience.
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Playing football.
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Okay.
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I know Florida is a big, yeah. At a
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Okay. I was the best. Yes, I was the best third string line back in the NFL that you guys have never heard of so.
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Okay.
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But.
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Yeah.
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And with all your favorite teams, Eagles, the Jets, you know, Bucks.
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So you guys are huge fans of them.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, yeah, yes. the jazz seemed to be 45 years of misery.
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Okay.
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And sadly, I’m too old, so I go back to when Joe Namath was doing those, shaving cream commercials with Terra Facet.
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And since then, not much, the Eagles have had a little more success and even beat us in Minnesota already.
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Yeah, Super Bowl that, old Jake was at. Yeah. But, we’re friendly competitors, but we’re never as afraid as when Jacob and I were in Jacksonville.
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When we added on 2,004 or so, that, with, the game against the Eagles.
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And Jake told me that there were 30,000 people who drove down from, Philadelphia. Knowing that they didn’t have tickets And Jake was like 11 years old and one of the fans of the NFL hotel bar.
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Okay.
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From the football like Jake said, I had some tough guys around me to protect him, but, Craig, we forgive you.
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Okay.
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Right.
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And we know Brian Boyer because, he used to be 30 straight for the Patriots and, he ended up as quarterback after, he used to be third straight for the Patriots and, ended up, as quarterback after, for the Patriots and, ended up, as quarterback after, Grapple got here in the last game. But anyway, I digress.
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So you could just go on, Jake.
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Yeah, no, absolutely. And, Craig, he is, the president of large loss at strategic claims consultants.
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And yeah, as, we kind of went on a tangent there. Craig was a, playing a small league called the, National Football League with the, the Jets, Eagles and Bucks. Who Jets and Eagles actually played this weekend? Who are you?
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Did you have any rooting interest, Craig?
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No, not anymore. I’m too old now at this point. None of these guys I played with all the coaches for the most part of moved on.
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So, you know, I’m trying to just adapt the local team even though the bucks make it hard at times so that my sons can be fans of the home team.
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They have a couple good years there with Tom Ready. So that’s at least a, a nice nice Super Bowl there.
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Yes.
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Okay. And the jets, the jets, that’d be, yeah. The Eagles, I believe, would sort of surprise me.
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Yeah, that was definitely an upset. But, but yeah, Craig decided to take off the football helmet and has gotten into, public adjusting initially started at a, as an independent adjuster and then kind of merged forces with Brandon Lewis who is the CEO of strategic claims consultants.
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And they have built a a really big business. Model with strategic claims consultants and as we mentioned nationwide reach deals with every type of claim you could think of.
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A lot of a lot of expertise and insurance generally as well as catastrophe preparedness and dealing with the catastrophe after it hits a condo association or or a different business type of asset.
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Any type of property damage basically they are dealing with. And, business type of asset, any type of property damage basically they are dealing with.
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And as usually our market hours go, feel free to type any questions into the into the chat feature.
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Aha and we’ll kind of just go on with the with the with the hour as it goes and try to get to your questions as they come up.
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But feel free to ask any questions. Any comments that you may have about insurance, as we know, insurance has been a huge topic across the nation and i mean florida is a big area where as Stephen had mentioned you know, citizens property insurance is the government backed in insurance entity and a lot of a lot of policyholders have had to use citizens because a lot of insurance carriers
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are I guess going under or, you know, being downgraded. And there’s just issues across the board as far as insurance premiums rising, insurance just becoming a huge issue from both the getting insurance, holding onto insurance, and then kind of the claims process as well.
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And yeah, disasters that doesn’t stop disasters from happening. Natural disasters. Fires, what have you.
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That’s the other kind of area that we’ll get into the area that Jordan and Craig have plenty of expertise in.
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And they’ll be able to kind of give you kind of a best practices guide and just some helpful tips and what we look for as we navigate the Claims process, analysis of policies and all that.
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So. Without further ado, let me let’s get into the the first topic which is claims review.
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An insurance policy analysis. And Jordan, do you kind of wanna get into a little bit of this and what you kind of.
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Yeah, I’m gonna.
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And let me let me do my final interruption and then I’ll stay I’ll mute myself.
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Yeah, I think Jay told me that there was gonna be a surprise at the end of the macas hour this week.
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So I’m guessing that, yeah, it’ll be cameos by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey.
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Jordan, take it away.
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Yeah.
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Yeah. It’s hard to call back. So, claims review and insurance policy analysis.
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Okay.
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I’m kinda, gonna give an intro to Craig Gobel here. He’s our president of large loss.
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He is claim leader he’s the one that kind of heads up operations and helps run the sales team and kind of make sure the ships move sailing at all times.
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I’ll kind of let him dive in on what we do on a basic policy analysis for our clients and once a claim is filed how we Now, the documentation from the carrier and to see how we can help an association.
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Sure, thanks Jordan. So basically, you know, there’s nothing funny about talk. There’s nothing fun about talking about claims.
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You know, everybody’s pretty upset with the current marketplace of insurance. You know, coverage is shrinking, premiums are skyrocketing.
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Insurance companies are fleeing catastrophe. Areas anywhere there’s a major risk. And frankly, when we’re talking about insurance companies.
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They’re for profit businesses. Okay, so we don’t judge insurance companies. We want healthy insurance companies.
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We want them to be there to pay claims when we need them. But they’re making business decisions based on exposure.
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And frankly every year you know, there are billions and billions and billions of dollars in storm claims and all the different perils that Jake just discussed.
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Storms have been getting worse we’ve seen a more frequency in category 4 and category 5 hurricanes wildfires seem to be spurring up.
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All across the country what happened in Hawaii and California and last year in Colorado. You just had a major hail event in Texas seems like we have a major hail event almost every month.
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There’s all types of events. We’ve had deep freezes all across the country.
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So, you know, the exposure for the insurance companies and the risk is increasing and that’s going to increase costs.
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That are gonna go to the consumers. So, you know, you’re also getting, we’re talking here, we’re obviously public adjusters, we’re experts and claims.
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You’re also getting sophisticated consumers that are hiring professionals like us. You know, one of the reasons we love condominiums, that we love property management groups and boards and things of that nature is because they understand.
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The value of professional representation. We’re talking on the market hour, who handle legal services.
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Your clients understand they don’t wanna handle their legal matters on their own. Our clients understand they don’t want to deal with a major insurance claim on their own.
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They wanna make sure that they’re getting what they bought. Okay, we’re not here to get something that nobody’s entitled to.
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But frankly, most of the people that we’re dealing with. Condominiums, they have a full time job or they’re retired and they don’t wanna deal with it.
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They wanna hire a professional. And that’s what we’re here to do. The policies, I mean, you guys are attorneys, you know, we can laugh about the attorneys on here right now.
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Now these policies are written so nobody understands them. You know, so we spend a tremendous amount of time.
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Understanding the changes in policy language. Deductibles are getting higher more exclusions are occurring which means there’s less coverage for events.
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You heard, Stephen talk about some of these per unit deductibles. You know, it’s just a continued evolution of increased cost.
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On the consumer and less exposure for the insurance companies. And that’s the sad reality and some of that has to do with some abuses by different unscrupulous characters and contractors and things like that, or increased, weather events and that’s kind of where we’re at.
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So it’s just important that you understand. Number one, you’re working with. A reputable broker, an agent that’s placing these insurance policies.
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Understanding the atmosphere of difficulty that they have in place in these policies. And you want to get the most available coverage for the most reasonable price.
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You don’t want to shop the cheapest premiums because you’re going to regret it. If something occurs.
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So having a reputable. Broker and agent that you can work with is imperative. Taking a look at the coverages with them, working with, you know, your attorney at times to even, provide different safeguard there.
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And that’s really what we’re looking at when we’re talking about getting a policy. In place and then also making sure that you have the proper Anything you want to add to that Jordan or Jake?
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No, that was, that was well handled. We’re gonna talk more about, the coverages aspects and more details.
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About that and the preparedness plan section as well. So that was a that was a good introduction to the Claims Review and Insurance Policy Analysis.
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Yeah, absolutely. And I think, Craig, you touched on a great point, making sure you have Not only sufficient insurance, but the right insurance and yeah, going to an insurance broker.
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Making sure that you have a sound and and you know, make sure you know what you’re getting in the master policy.
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Also encouraging unit owners to carry. A adequate insurance is another another measure that we typically recommend, on top of having a, good, master policy at hand.
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So, that’s definitely a great, a great lead in. To I believe our next is yeah just general condo association property claims and this can come in the first party at third party.
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Contacts, first party is when you’re going after your insured directly essentially. Third party is when you’re going after another party.
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Another entity I should say to get their insurer on board and i’ll go to Jordan on this one what kind of things are you seeing just as far as general condo association property claims, in both contacts, I would say.
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And if I can interrupt again, there’s a question that came up. And Jordan doesn’t have to answer.
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Right now, but should at some point during the yeah webinar and the question is when there is an opportunity, can you speak to coverage for construction or developer related to facts?
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I assume that’s Rolled into things that children is gonna speak about, but I just want him to know that that question has been asked by somebody in the audience.
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Yep, we will do that. Okay. Okay.
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Okay. One more, one more question about, premium increases year over year. What are the standard deductibles for property policies?
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Oh, the standard deductibles can range Jake, you know, anywhere from, you know, $1,000 to 50,000 to a hundred 1,000, they could be percentage.
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Based on events. They’re fluctuating. You know, and that also goes along with how your premiums calculated.
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So, you know, we’re seeing all types of creative deductibles and all types of changes in set aggregate deductible.
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So it’s really It’s a crap shoot right now out there.
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As with most things insurance right now it seems.
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Yeah, so I’ll give a brief introduction about the condo association property claims. I like Craig go into more detail.
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So strategic is handling. Condo Association property claims anywhere from Texas to North Carolina to Florida to the northeast.
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We are a nationwide firm that see all different kinds of scenarios. We’ve been very heavily involved.
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And the hurricane in recoveries in southwest Florida. So from Naples to Inglewood, Florida, Boca Grande area.
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That’s 3 h of drive time on I. 75, which is. One of the large center states in Florida and With 3 h of coastline damage is significant.
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Craig and I are still getting calls every day from different condo associations to help guide them and make sure that become identified.
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The main thing you have to realize when you deal with these big kind of claims is the insurance company is not gonna just write a check because you think they think they owe you.
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You have to prove your loss in every single detail. How are you, like strategic claims? You have to documents.
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And every single square inch of damage at our property and work with your contractor to essentially make sure that the billing is correct, that it falls within the policy guidelines and make sure you’re abiding by the policy while making sure that the insurance gets put back together wholly.
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And to do that you have to You have to combine the policy along with the damages and work with all the vendors associated to give these claims properly.
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And these property claims. What sets us apart differently and where we’re maybe a couple success stories on some big associations that we’ve worked with.
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Recently
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Sure, thanks Jordan. Well Jake, I mean What’s going on out there? And I think a lot of your audience can understand is how different the claims landscape is.
00:27:32.000 –> 00:27:44.000
Now than it was even 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago. You know, like I said, we’re fans of the insurance company, but the models change dramatically.
00:27:44.000 –> 00:27:53.000
The days of an insurance company adjuster coming out with a check book. You know, negotiating with your contractor and running your check on site.
00:27:53.000 –> 00:27:59.000
Those days are long gone. Those days don’t exist anymore. It’s a much more complicated process.
00:27:59.000 –> 00:28:02.000
It’s a much more intricate process and frankly. It leads to a lot more frustration.
00:28:02.000 –> 00:28:13.000
If you’re reading articles across the country, you’re seeing a loss of customer service and a lot of businesses and that’s translating into insurance claims as well.
00:28:13.000 –> 00:28:19.000
Now, frankly, it’s increasing business for us, the lack of customer service from the insurance companies.
00:28:19.000 –> 00:28:31.000
It’s also watering down their product. So what we’re seeing out there in the field is if you have a big claim or a little client even, you know, the insurance company could send out multiple different professionals.
00:28:31.000 –> 00:28:42.000
To evaluate your claim. And what we’re finding is you’re getting this. Convoluted game of telephone that we all know about and the message is getting lost.
00:28:42.000 –> 00:28:49.000
And that’s leading to frustration with the consumer. That’s leading to underpayments at times.
00:28:49.000 –> 00:28:59.000
And it’s creating a sort of a lack of goodwill out there and insurance claims process. I can tell you I just walked out before getting on here.
00:28:59.000 –> 00:29:08.000
From a board meeting, with a potential client in Southwest Florida. That has a 10 over 10 million dollar claim from the hurricane.
00:29:08.000 –> 00:29:20.000
Let me remind you now, it’s over a year after the hurricane. They have over 10 million dollar claim and damages and the insurance companies paid them 3.1 million dollars.
00:29:20.000 –> 00:29:23.000
Their construction has had to stop completely. They’re building. We just went through rainy season here in Florida.
00:29:23.000 –> 00:29:35.000
Their building continued to get leaks from not being repaired properly from not having funding. And there’s a slew of items.
00:29:35.000 –> 00:29:36.000
I mean, a year later, they’re still dealing with this. People forget that this hurricane occurred a year ago.
00:29:36.000 –> 00:29:47.000
And this is going on all over the place as Jordan alluded to shortly ago. So you look for solutions here.
00:29:47.000 –> 00:29:55.000
I think natural progression. You know, you want to work with the insurance company, you want your contractor.
00:29:55.000 –> 00:30:06.000
To put together a pair methodologies but I think at this stage What we’re seeing with condo associations is just the general need for professional representation, for education.
00:30:06.000 –> 00:30:12.000
I know for instance, And I’m sure Jake, you can appreciate this and I know Stephen has got more experience than all of us in all of our lifetimes.
00:30:12.000 –> 00:30:21.000
We love property managers. They’re a big portion of our business, but I don’t think any of us want to manage properties here.
00:30:21.000 –> 00:30:27.000
You know, we’ve got a full time job. And a specialty. I could tell you the property managers that we deal with.
00:30:27.000 –> 00:30:38.000
Don’t want to be insurance adjusters. So it’s just important in this claims process. And Jordan will talk about this a little bit later is to make sure you have people that you can rely on.
00:30:38.000 –> 00:30:47.000
And have a source to help you through the claims process. And, this is not something that you want to go out alone most of the time.
00:30:47.000 –> 00:30:50.000
So Jordan, you anything you want to add to that?
00:30:50.000 –> 00:31:00.000
Now, that was pretty good overview. But yeah, it’s. I’ll head on the property management section.
00:31:00.000 –> 00:31:15.000
When when you have a major catastrophe and you have a 7 or an 8 figure claim having a property manager job is not to handle an insurance plan and the amount of time in hours and stress that can cause on them.
00:31:15.000 –> 00:31:26.000
It is really shrimpless and making sure that you have the right professionals in the right place at the right time to make sure that your association gets put back call as paramount in this process.
00:31:26.000 –> 00:31:27.000
Yeah. No, go ahead.
00:31:27.000 –> 00:31:38.000
Jake, do you get a lot? I’m sorry. Jake, do you get a lot of calls from traded property managers asking questions from the law firm about what they should do and things of that nature when it comes to claims often.
00:31:38.000 –> 00:31:44.000
Oh, absolutely. And it’s definitely something that will come up. I mean the manager.
00:31:44.000 –> 00:31:51.000
Of the association is is yeah that’s the I guess professional onboard to help with the management maintenance all that that comes into an association.
00:31:51.000 –> 00:32:18.000
In a way, the liaison to to the board members who, as you as you had as you had discussed is yeah a board member are generally the individuals who represent the association, in the associations best interest and they have the fiduciary duty.
00:32:18.000 –> 00:32:26.000
But as far as hours in the day, yeah, they generally have a separate. Full time job and then this is a volunteer.
00:32:26.000 –> 00:32:37.000
Position that they have on the board. So yeah, working in tandem with the board members, property managers.
00:32:37.000 –> 00:32:44.000
And making sure we’re bringing in the right experts like someone at strategic club consultants who can, who can navigate this process with.
00:32:44.000 –> 00:33:00.000
With you know the right expertise knowing the right experts to get in. That’s something that we definitely look for and something that we’re you know, tasked with kind of dealing with and figuring out the most efficient.
00:33:00.000 –> 00:33:12.000
And I guess in a way profitable. manner of getting this, getting insurance claims dealt with and also dealing with it at the front end of making sure we have the right insurance in place and making sure that.
00:33:12.000 –> 00:33:21.000
What we’ll get to next is having catastrophe preparedness plan in place.
00:33:21.000 –> 00:33:30.000
Can, can I, interrupt with 2 extremely good questions from the participants that I, the attendees that I think.
00:33:30.000 –> 00:33:42.000
Everybody, yeah, will wanna hear. The first one is how do you get paid? And I can say, that it’s a percentage.
00:33:42.000 –> 00:33:51.000
I can say in Massachusetts that it can’t be over 10%. Though Jake ran into an adjuster that they ended up not using because they were some crazy amount like 18 or 20% down in Florida.
00:33:51.000 –> 00:34:16.000
But what we generally find up here is 5 to 10% but it depends on the claim and yeah and I can’t answer for for Jordan, Craig, so defer to them.
00:34:16.000 –> 00:34:40.000
And the second question was, an actual question is somebody says we love using professionals. We love bringing in public justice, can, but to insurance carry is penalized us by charging higher premiums because we use public adjusters.
00:34:40.000 –> 00:34:52.000
My only comment is gonna be that I haven’t seen higher premiums to associations because how would the carrier know if used.
00:34:52.000 –> 00:35:05.000
Public justice by seeing at least one company that says that They do not wanna deal with public adjust those and.
00:35:05.000 –> 00:35:20.000
Maybe, yeah, Jordan can address that. Any problem where an insurance carrier simply won’t talk to them.
00:35:20.000 –> 00:35:21.000
So, the percentage.
00:35:21.000 –> 00:35:27.000
You know, Stephen, I’ll take that. Yeah, I’ll take that Stephen. First of all, as far as what we charge, yes, we do a small contingency fee in most agreements like you talked about.
00:35:27.000 –> 00:35:38.000
We typically customize those to make sure it works for both sides, both parties, but nothing upfront, nothing out of pocket.
00:35:38.000 –> 00:35:47.000
Everybody gets to watch this work, feel comfortable with our process and then. When we reach an optimal claim settlement then we get paid our fee we invest heavily in our clients claims also.
00:35:47.000 –> 00:35:57.000
If there’s a need for outside engineers or things of that nature. We don’t ask our clients to write checks.
00:35:57.000 –> 00:36:04.000
We bring in outside experts. We understand that there’s usually, a financial deficit.
00:36:04.000 –> 00:36:12.000
For the board in a claim situation. So we make sure that they get a lot of those fees recovered in the insurance claims process.
00:36:12.000 –> 00:36:20.000
And then regarding. Carriers not wanting to talk to us. We don’t experience that very often.
00:36:20.000 –> 00:36:29.000
I can tell you most of our people, including myself, worked for insurance companies. That’s where we get the bulk of our employees is from insurance companies.
00:36:29.000 –> 00:36:40.000
We want our people to understand the insurance claims process from the insurance company side. So we understand the etiquette, we understand the language, we understand the relationships.
00:36:40.000 –> 00:36:52.000
And that is incredibly key just like in any businesses having relationships with the other side. They’re gonna be bad characters, just like they’re bad attorneys and bad contractors and every type of actor you can imagine.
00:36:52.000 –> 00:37:02.000
So I’m certain that there’s a lot of times that certain insurance companies don’t wanna deal with an attorney or a public adjuster or a contractor, but we don’t run into that.
00:37:02.000 –> 00:37:13.000
And our people are trained. You know, to work through any animosity. And just prove the claim at the end of the day and be a professional and earn respect just like in any etiquette.
00:37:13.000 –> 00:37:22.000
Situation. So we don’t have that issue as far as premiums increasing. There are a number of issues out there right now.
00:37:22.000 –> 00:37:32.000
You know that’s not how risks are calculated and premiums are calculated is if you use a public adjuster do you sometimes potentially hear that from an agent or broker?
00:37:32.000 –> 00:37:48.000
That doesn’t wanna see a claim increase maybe what we’re seeing more frequently though Stephen is that we’re fighting on a legislative basis across the country is anti public adjuster endorsements.
00:37:48.000 –> 00:37:54.000
Where you can’t hire a public adjuster in the policy. Fortunately, Texas just outlawed this.
00:37:54.000 –> 00:38:06.000
It was outlawed during Hurricane Ida in Louisiana for a time period. But that is something going on right now across the country that may come to New England if it hasn’t already.
00:38:06.000 –> 00:38:07.000
Where you don’t even have the option.
00:38:07.000 –> 00:38:14.000
It It hasn’t, but that’s. Right, so is legislation saying that you can’t use public justice?
00:38:14.000 –> 00:38:24.000
The insurance companies are putting endorsements in their policies to say you can’t hire public adjusters.
00:38:24.000 –> 00:38:25.000
Okay.
00:38:25.000 –> 00:38:28.000
And we’re battling that on a state level. You know to say, you know, that’s obviously anti-consumer.
00:38:28.000 –> 00:38:29.000
Yeah.
00:38:29.000 –> 00:38:40.000
And we’ve been pretty successful, at the national level. Different trade organizations so we’re working hard on that it also doesn’t make a lot of sense why insurance companies would rather be sued.
00:38:40.000 –> 00:38:52.000
I’m sure it’s wonderful for the lawyers, Stephen. They’d rather be sued than have a professional public adjuster working on behalf of a consumer just to get them paid what they’re entitled to.
00:38:52.000 –> 00:38:54.000
But yeah, we don’t.
00:38:54.000 –> 00:39:02.000
And frankly, I’m old school, real old school, real old school.
00:39:02.000 –> 00:39:25.000
But I sort of like when, I’m old school. but I sort of like when, going back to when I started this, doing kind of those the person that travels in Boston got by by the name of Chester Sue who and would have a claim I’d call up Chester and they weren’t big plans at the time, but they seemed like they
00:39:25.000 –> 00:39:31.000
were, remember the 5,000. 10,000. And after I had dealt with him a couple of times, he said, oh, just because the estimate and I’ll send you a check.
00:39:31.000 –> 00:39:48.000
The relationship was built where, he knew that I was being honest with him and he treated us right in terms of resolving the claim and our clients were.
00:39:48.000 –> 00:40:04.000
Very happy. Now I know this question is going to be asked is, okay, if you charge 10% or 5% or whatever you charge.
00:40:04.000 –> 00:40:16.000
I think in Massachusetts it can’t be over 10%. Well that means that we as an association are out of pocket on your 10 million dollar claim.
00:40:16.000 –> 00:40:32.000
10% is a lot of money. US upway cost, not a benefit. I think I know the answer to it, but I like to hear Craig explain it to the audience.
00:40:32.000 –> 00:40:40.000
Sure, well, I’ll just give the example that I’m working with a couple of minutes ago when I was just in front of a board of director shortly ago.
00:40:40.000 –> 00:40:47.000
They’re about 7 million dollars short of where they need their construction to be. So they can be 7 million dollars short.
00:40:47.000 –> 00:40:59.000
And try to figure out some way to fund that shortfall. Or they could pay us a small percentage to make sure they have everything they need to rebuild their property.
00:40:59.000 –> 00:41:06.000
And to make sure that that building is safe and put back together and up to local codes and things like that for the next 1020 years.
00:41:06.000 –> 00:41:13.000
You know, on smaller claims, you know, the insurance company understands and I’ll tell you straight from executives mouths.
00:41:13.000 –> 00:41:32.000
Sometimes they’re willing to pay a little bit more. To consumers to make claims get closed okay claims just continue to get more expensive the longer they’re open if you talk to insurance companies So there’s a creative ways to make sure that.
00:41:32.000 –> 00:41:43.000
Everybody’s whole and everything is fair and nobody has a. Financial deficit you’ll always be responsible for your deductible and yes our clients always pay us our fee.
00:41:43.000 –> 00:41:48.000
But we find that they feel very satisfied that they’re entirely whole at the end of the process.
00:41:48.000 –> 00:41:59.000
I’ll get a small example. But one that, is an easy way for me to explain why public adjust is.
00:41:59.000 –> 00:42:04.000
Makes sense. one, we know we’re dealing with volunteer boys. They may be brilliant business people, but it’s not in the real estate business.
00:42:04.000 –> 00:42:34.000
The cost to, do the repairs, but the tiny example that everybody can probably relate to going again back to my early days of doing this kind of while everybody can probably relate to going again back to my early days of doing this kind of example that everybody can probably relate to going again back to my early days of doing this kind of while, was somebody would have water leak and the unit below would have a stain in the sailing, let’s say,
00:42:37.000 –> 00:42:52.000
the association and the managers might have settled for, okay, we’ll give you 10 cents to staying kill those 2.
00:42:52.000 –> 00:43:06.000
Oh, as soon as the adjusters got involved with the ceilings or capit, it would be, the matching issue, which is, the, the collipades over time.
00:43:06.000 –> 00:43:19.000
You can’t just paint 2 square feet. You have to do the entire room of the entire unit and just a small example of why of how.
00:43:19.000 –> 00:43:25.000
Public addresses or an asset not a liability.
00:43:25.000 –> 00:43:28.000
Yes, and one more thing just to add to that, Stephen, something interesting. Just interesting for us, probably boring for most folks.
00:43:28.000 –> 00:43:45.000
In Florida after the 405 hurricanes, you know, it’s interesting. The Florida office regulation was looking at sort of discrediting the Florida office regulation was looking at sort of discrediting the effect of public adjustments was looking at sort of discrediting the effect of public adjusters.
00:43:45.000 –> 00:43:54.000
They came out with something called the OPAGA report. And the apology report was a government study basically on the effectiveness of public adjusters.
00:43:54.000 –> 00:43:59.000
And the intent was to show that they were taking away money from the public that they were elongating claims.
00:43:59.000 –> 00:44:07.000
It actually ended up being one of our greatest sales tools. It showed that on an average claim, hurricane claim.
00:44:07.000 –> 00:44:17.000
On residential public adjusters were increasing settlements by 747%. On average.
00:44:17.000 –> 00:44:32.000
I want you just to think about that. So you’ll be able to look that up and I don’t have the numbers on me specifically it was either 757 or 47 but i mean what a difference it was and you’re still seeing those types of differences now the larger the claim gets.
00:44:32.000 –> 00:44:40.000
I wouldn’t expect an 800% difference but Jordan can give you a number of examples and we have clients all over.
00:44:40.000 –> 00:44:47.000
Southwest Florida from the hurricane where the insurance company offered them a million dollars and we got them 10 million dollars 4 months later.
00:44:47.000 –> 00:44:56.000
So it’s a dramatic difference. And I just appreciate you mentioned some of your examples there, Stephen.
00:44:56.000 –> 00:44:57.000
Yeah
00:44:57.000 –> 00:45:21.000
You’re the experts. And, but the questions keep pouring in on. Yeah, how much do you get paid so I can can I give a because one of the questions is who pays and then the second which is sort of a trick question but I’ll explain why and the second which is sort of a trick question, which is sort of a trick question, but I’ll explain why.
00:45:21.000 –> 00:45:31.000
And the second, which is sort of a trick question, but I’ll explain why. And the second is, do, do you, help the unit on on the ratio of 6 lands.
00:45:31.000 –> 00:45:35.000
So in Massachusetts, in New England, typical these days or not a typical is a 50,000 per unit.
00:45:35.000 –> 00:45:51.000
One a damage deductible. So on who pays the adjuster? I know your agreement says that the association does.
00:45:51.000 –> 00:46:15.000
And mass chooses when you start breaking things up, and allocating the deductible to the and they get coverage A in the amount of $50,000 some associations are charging a piece of the adjusters fee to the units that sustain the damage, units of sustained the damage.
00:46:15.000 –> 00:46:28.000
And the key ingredient to why that’s not awful is what Craig just said, which is if you can get 50% more or 740% more.
00:46:28.000 –> 00:46:29.000
Everybody is way, ahead. But anyway, let me shut up and let you guys talk.
00:46:29.000 –> 00:46:36.000
Yeah, I
00:46:36.000 –> 00:46:47.000
Yeah, we also got a good question. And it kind of leads into our next kind of, discrete topic, which is catastrophe preparedness plans.
00:46:47.000 –> 00:46:59.000
For a board and for an association and that is what should a board do when a loss takes place and this is this is kind of a a there’s a lot of best practices that you can take.
00:46:59.000 –> 00:47:08.000
Before and after. As we’ve discussed having sufficient, sufficient insurance, having the right insurance, is one way.
00:47:08.000 –> 00:47:13.000
I would say after a loss takes place, kind of ascertaining the extent of the damages and really documenting the damages.
00:47:13.000 –> 00:47:24.000
Is probably another area. Is that what you would agree on Jordan and Craig?
00:47:24.000 –> 00:47:26.000
Yeah, I think that. Something that we would exhaust, at length would be preparation before loss.
00:47:26.000 –> 00:47:39.000
It’s We spend an exorbitant amount of time as a company and money and resources.
00:47:39.000 –> 00:47:56.000
Educating people before losses. We’ve already talked about coverages. But really, frankly, having Having professionals having vendors I’ll let Jordan touch more into that but you know, when there’s a deep freeze when there is a winter storm.
00:47:56.000 –> 00:48:06.000
Having a restoration partner, a general contractor, water mitigation company, you know, an HVAC company, Plummer, having these types of professionals.
00:48:06.000 –> 00:48:17.000
Having these relationships in place before the event. Because if there’s a wide scale event that happens, those resources are going to be gobbled up quickly.
00:48:17.000 –> 00:48:25.000
Okay, and if you’re not. In the front of the line if you don’t have the relationships if you don’t have pre loss agreements.
00:48:25.000 –> 00:48:34.000
You’re gonna be choosing from, you know, for lack of better turn carpet baggers people coming in you don’t know if they’re there for good reasons or bad reasons to come in and help.
00:48:34.000 –> 00:48:40.000
On these type of damage events. You hope most of these people are coming in to help, but you know, there are bad actors that come in.
00:48:40.000 –> 00:48:46.000
And you don’t wanna be choosing from those types of people. You want to have relationships before the event.
00:48:46.000 –> 00:48:53.000
You want to make sure that your attorneys are reviewing these contracts. You’re vetting these people.
00:48:53.000 –> 00:49:05.000
You’ve got the coverages in place. And really getting that plan in place of what happens if usually the greatest start to a successful outcome.
00:49:05.000 –> 00:49:14.000
Another piece of advice, certainly, and you all can appreciate this, Jake and Stephen is. Having a great relationship with a local bank.
00:49:14.000 –> 00:49:24.000
And having a line of credit in the instance you need it. Because what’s the biggest deficit when a major event happens it’s usually financial.
00:49:24.000 –> 00:49:33.000
And you wanna make sure that you can put your building back. That you can make emergency repairs that you can get occupancy back that you can do with all these different things.
00:49:33.000 –> 00:49:43.000
And what do you need to do that? You know, some boards, some properties are very healthy financially and the reserves are in place and we know others are not.
00:49:43.000 –> 00:49:49.000
So making sure that that financial plan is in place is absolutely critical. And, Jordan.
00:49:49.000 –> 00:50:03.000
Okay. We’ve been very fortunate. I’m gonna miss some but we have banks such as Shaw Bank and And.
00:50:03.000 –> 00:50:12.000
Rockland Trust, North Shore Bank. Which will do brookline bank which will do at least 10 to 12 year loans.
00:50:12.000 –> 00:50:25.000
Some of them will do at least one of them will do 25 year loans if it has to be spread out long time so that piece is good.
00:50:25.000 –> 00:50:33.000
Somebody asked what do you do in addition to calling a public adjuster if there’s a claim. So again, we’re gonna use a Boston example.
00:50:33.000 –> 00:50:57.000
A hot water heater, burst, the unit on a risen home. It goes down 20 stories, does substantial damage to units and all 20 stories.
00:50:57.000 –> 00:51:09.000
Insurance resolutions allocating the back to both of the unit owner and then telling the $50,000 of coverage A.
00:51:09.000 –> 00:51:38.000
Or at least that and so What we do is the first step, if you have that policy in place, is notify the owners, tell them that it’s since they their unit, they should have the damage assessed as well as the insurance carrier looking looking at it and the adjusted looking at it.
00:51:38.000 –> 00:52:08.000
But that they should notify their ratio 6 carrier the universe should notify their HO 6 carrier because the coverage A, 50,000, they might have an deductible of $500.
00:52:34.000 –> 00:52:43.000
Because we all know unfortunately if 400 sets for let’s say 48 h to 72 h.
00:52:43.000 –> 00:53:06.000
Then there are issues with mold and then we get into all sorts of exclusions that carriers have as to bold image and typically at least Massachusetts a property damage coverage of $15,000 per insurance year and no liability or GNO coverage.
00:53:06.000 –> 00:53:15.000
Yep. And, and that’s a, that’s a good point as well to, As Craig mentioned, basically the pre.
00:53:15.000 –> 00:53:32.000
Lost kind of planning. I think a few other things the board can do is yeah, go after or not go after but encourage your unit owners to have yeah HO 6 policies in place and the proper policies in place to protect against their own.
00:53:32.000 –> 00:53:49.000
Units damages. Another thing a board can do is something we usually recommend is have subcommittees outside of the board a disaster plan committee could be something that’s in place that basically pinpoints and go and and tells the association what to do, what the governing document should say.
00:53:49.000 –> 00:54:19.000
As far as disaster plan. Conducting reserve studies to make sure that there’s adequate finances in place or as Craig mentioned the proper lines of credits.
00:54:25.000 –> 00:54:36.000
Set of damages through photos and videos. And go from there. But yeah, let’s get more into the nitty gritty, just as catastrophe preparedness.
00:54:36.000 –> 00:54:41.000
And, just continue. Go on, Jordan. Do you have anything else to kind of add to?
00:54:41.000 –> 00:54:42.000
Yeah, yeah, I’m, I’ll talk on catastrophe, preparedness.
00:54:42.000 –> 00:54:56.000
So, and as you see, one thing we like to kind of still into our clients and our potential clients is playing offense, not defense.
00:54:56.000 –> 00:55:06.000
Having a proper catastrophe preparedness plan in case of the worst case scenario put you in a position to succeed in one of the most stressful times in your entire life.
00:55:06.000 –> 00:55:19.000
After Hurricane in Southwest Florida, there’s 2, pretty big property management groups that I’m working with and have personal relationships now and kind of lead these accounts.
00:55:19.000 –> 00:55:29.000
And we have been developing these catastrophe preparedness plans with them in order for in case if something like this ever happens.
00:55:29.000 –> 00:55:39.000
So obviously the first thing in every single. Cottom Association needs to know is what is your policy actually say?
00:55:39.000 –> 00:55:45.000
Review your policy. What hurts you? What helps you? Do you have exclusions?
00:55:45.000 –> 00:55:52.000
What is your deductible? How are you going to navigate at any time of potential, any kind of potential claim?
00:55:52.000 –> 00:56:02.000
Can it be from a Pipers to a hurricane claim to a fire plan. They all have they all have different language in the policy that applies to those each individual claims.
00:56:02.000 –> 00:56:10.000
So being able to know what scenario you’re up against prior to a disaster situation will help you. Be put in that position to succeed.
00:56:10.000 –> 00:56:19.000
One way our firm, acquires business is helping property management groups and associations nationwide.
00:56:19.000 –> 00:56:28.000
Provide them free policy reviews and Guide them and help them and kind of help them develop a catastrophe plan where they know they’re going to succeed if something bad happens.
00:56:28.000 –> 00:56:48.000
Also another very vital part to developing a proper catastrophe plan is vendors. Like, Craig was alluding to earlier, you do not want to have a large fire or a hurricane hit you and not know where you’re gonna turn and not know which vendor you are going to select or have potential vendors you’re going to select.
00:56:48.000 –> 00:57:16.000
You always want to have choices. You always want to make educated decisions. We find all the time when condo associations go through these traumatic events that it can be very high level stress and they don’t necessarily make the most informative decisions and sometimes you have to just take a breath relax.
00:57:16.000 –> 00:57:25.000
Ask your resources around you. Ask Jake, ask Stephen, ask Craig, ask the people that navigate, condo complexes all across the country and know who to turn to.
00:57:25.000 –> 00:57:34.000
And Jake, if any of your associations ever, need a guideline on how to develop these plans.
00:57:34.000 –> 00:57:45.000
We have templates for them. We have, contractors, roofers, HVAC.
00:57:45.000 –> 00:57:48.000
We know, we know the best players in every field across the country and we can kind of help develop a plan.
00:57:48.000 –> 00:58:09.000
Working along with region specific. So it just depends on, depends on the area you’re working and what type of claim you’re gonna usually be up against and putting those Putting the worst case scenario on the paper and figuring out how you’re gonna overcome the worst situation possible so
00:58:09.000 –> 00:58:18.000
You brought up some. Something really, interesting. The in the northeast I don’t think is all that common.
00:58:18.000 –> 00:58:25.000
If I heard you right. One, you know what most of the insurance policies out there side.
00:58:25.000 –> 00:58:50.000
I know the surplus lines where they could say anything but you know the policies but the thing that you said that in my experience associations don’t too well manages don’t do or maybe they do but I don’t know about it is to have a company such as strategic.
00:58:50.000 –> 00:58:59.000
In place just like you have a lawyer and a CPA. And, and a property manager.
00:58:59.000 –> 00:59:09.000
But before our claim, and it sounds like you mentioned And correct me if I’m wrong. A couple of advantages.
00:59:09.000 –> 00:59:26.000
One, it sounds like there’d be no charge for sort of helping them develop a disaster plan unless you tell me otherwise, but more importantly, Yeah, they have on their team.
00:59:26.000 –> 00:59:41.000
Strategic as the public adjuster. So if a claim comes in. They already have retained somebody to deal with the the claims.
00:59:41.000 –> 00:59:44.000
I think that’s really interesting. I’m not sure. How many associations?
00:59:44.000 –> 01:00:01.000
Yeah, I could just on that. Yeah, so we, one of the ways, strategic rotates business is through education and helping property management groups and associations develop these plans.
01:00:01.000 –> 01:00:08.000
I, I review policies all the time, send them back to associations, let them know what’s hurting them, what’s helping them, and also work with these property management groups to help their associations.
01:00:08.000 –> 01:00:33.000
Develop these plans before it happens. And educating and putting someone in the position to succeed before a disaster strikes or before a catastrophic event strikes will ultimately Well, ultimately have them back on their feet and help everything get resolved, but then they’ll also know who to turn to and who they can trust.
01:00:33.000 –> 01:00:54.000
We’re, the firm that make sure from the very beginning until the last penny is paid and when your renewal comes up we look at your policy and from every part of the claim we’re going to be there for you, make sure that we can be the person you turn to or the people you turn to.
01:00:54.000 –> 01:00:55.000
So that’s a sensible.
01:00:55.000 –> 01:01:04.000
Yeah, and I think Jordan, 1 one thing to add there. Jordan that. Is how many claims we don’t take, Stephen, that we freely advise on.
01:01:04.000 –> 01:01:11.000
You know, if it’s a single unit. Pipe break or something of that nature or a small smoky.
01:01:11.000 –> 01:01:25.000
Kitchen smoke out in a unit. I mean, we advise on those things freely all the time that the property manager may have a wonderful relationship like you said with the local service master group or serve pro or whatever mitigation company there may be.
01:01:25.000 –> 01:01:32.000
Not every claim needs a public adjuster. We all know that. But it is important to make sure that you’re getting the policy interpretation.
01:01:32.000 –> 01:01:42.000
They understand their rights and they have the access to somebody like us to ask the questions to make sure it is going right or more times than not.
01:01:42.000 –> 01:01:49.000
To not make mistakes. And make sure you’re in compliance with the policy. So we do that.
01:01:49.000 –> 01:01:53.000
All the time for free. We field more phone calls, like that than we do probably incoming claims.
01:01:53.000 –> 01:01:57.000
So it’s important again, that’s why it’s important to have these types of relationships.
01:01:57.000 –> 01:02:02.000
In place.
01:02:02.000 –> 01:02:18.000
And I assume that you would do Zoom calls, say, XYZ management company, wants you to speak to, well, in our opinion it would be to follow their property managers.
01:02:18.000 –> 01:02:29.000
You could try and let’s say they have. 25 of them. You could have 25 different appointments.
01:02:29.000 –> 01:02:44.000
So it seems to make sense to me is she offer a zoom zoom file with the property manages of the property management company telling him what you do, how you do it.
01:02:44.000 –> 01:03:06.000
And, with the property manages, the property management company, telling him what you do, how you do it, and, with the idea that, hopefully it’s you, but if it’s not you that, hopefully it’s you, but if it’s not you that, at the very least, they come out with one, knowing that they have to
01:03:06.000 –> 01:03:19.000
do with just the disaster preparedness plan. And then as Craig said, he, he does, that you guys do a lot upfront for free and, to, that it wouldn’t be a bad idea for them to have a company such as strategic inspections to be on
01:03:19.000 –> 01:03:20.000
Yeah.
01:03:20.000 –> 01:03:32.000
Absolutely, Stephen. We do a ton of continuing education, ton of Zooms, ton of presentations, you know, you’re the sort of godfather over in CAI with all of your lifetime awards and those things.
01:03:32.000 –> 01:03:43.000
We’re always trying to get speaking engagements in those forums and like you said education education education because it pays dividends over time.
01:03:43.000 –> 01:04:01.000
So, so, past 110’clock. Some people have dropped off but a bunch is still on if you all, Jordan the Craig a few, heaven, things that you want to speak to, say for another 10 min.
01:04:01.000 –> 01:04:09.000
This time I’ll really be in it. I won’t say anything else. I know I said.
01:04:09.000 –> 01:04:20.000
I was gonna say I was gonna add one more thing before we kind of close up. This was our, our final substantive slide that says what to do after a catastrophe strikes.
01:04:20.000 –> 01:04:45.000
Who you gonna call strategic claim consultants? But I think I would I would after our kind of discussion here it’s who you what to do before and after during whatever you’re gonna always you know the one thing you can do is call strategic claim consultants but there’s other other preventative measures that could be taken outside of that before and after.
01:04:45.000 –> 01:05:11.000
And that’s kind of I think the before part is what I really want to emphasize it’s not just after it’s before what you can do before as Craig, Jordan, Stephen had mentioned, there are a lot of things that you can do, a lot of hours that go into, the planning and, and education that goes into that from insurance, from getting your insurance policy to get in touch with the right
01:05:11.000 –> 01:05:23.000
broker to realizing what you’re kind of doing a study on your association, what they can pay, go into a lender, having a disaster plan in place.
01:05:23.000 –> 01:05:32.000
Figuring out what you’re gonna need what vendors what experts you’re gonna need to rehabilitate your association.
01:05:32.000 –> 01:05:39.000
And then kinda just emergency actions you can take. And documenting all the damages with photos and videos.
01:05:39.000 –> 01:05:48.000
And to show how long key strategic is. Under that last slide, if you can go back.
01:05:48.000 –> 01:06:01.000
They don’t tell you. Where they’re located, what their website is, what the email is.
01:06:01.000 –> 01:06:31.000
Yeah, what the telephone number is. They’re so late. They think it’s a Florida, people in the cell thing, they’re, they’re, as Craig said, they’re here to educate and we want them to speak for another 10 min or so on whatever they want to speak to but well we’re gonna go follow up to this webinar where
01:06:31.000 –> 01:07:01.000
Jake’s gonna cut and paste all the questions that we’re and we’re gonna provide answers, but we’re also gonna provide information on how to reach Jordan and Craig and strategic if you have an answer questions just feel like chatting to them if you feel like talking about Craig’s induction into the NFL Hall of Fame and, Craig’s,
01:07:06.000 –> 01:07:13.000
induction into the NFL Hall of Fame and, or anything else that might be on your mind.
01:07:13.000 –> 01:07:19.000
Or, walk if you want a public adjuster on your team before you have a disaster. So, Craig and Jordan, do you have 10 min of just
01:07:19.000 –> 01:07:27.000
Yeah, we got, one more question, just asked to us from Adrian.
01:07:27.000 –> 01:07:31.000
Craig, I’m gonna read this to you real quick.
01:07:31.000 –> 01:07:45.000
With insurance carriers, increasing premiums just for reporting claims. Some of our associations hold off on reporting damages and county units to their carriers until owners can prove the losses greater than the associations deductible.
01:07:45.000 –> 01:07:53.000
Sometimes this takes some time and by now reporting the claim right away. Does this practice?
01:07:53.000 –> 01:08:10.000
Heard the claim. And potentially, risk claim not getting covered. What is your panel suggest as part of the association’s risk management policy for associations to reduce the number of claims, especially for those losses that are less than their deductible.
01:08:10.000 –> 01:08:14.000
Sure, well that was like 12 questions, but it’s actually a great point and I’m glad that she asked.
01:08:14.000 –> 01:08:27.000
First of all, it happens all the time, especially we’re just talking about a normal loss there in this question, but what if you’re dealing with a percentage deductible?
01:08:27.000 –> 01:08:37.000
Also like in a hurricane situation or free situation hail whatever it may be So I’ll answer the question in 2 ways.
01:08:37.000 –> 01:08:47.000
I know most of the time the agents and brokers prefer to put the insurance carrier on notice. And that has something to do with the compliance in your policy.
01:08:47.000 –> 01:08:53.000
You do have a duty to report the loss as soon as you know it’s available to be reported.
01:08:53.000 –> 01:08:59.000
Now there are situations where You don’t believe you’re gonna surpass your deductible.
01:08:59.000 –> 01:09:03.000
You don’t want to make claim. You don’t want to have a loss history to affect premiums.
01:09:03.000 –> 01:09:05.000
So yes, it’s absolutely a loaded question and it’s going to be a case by case scenario.
01:09:05.000 –> 01:09:20.000
I personally completely understand that scenario. I don’t want to make claim. If we’re not gonna exceed the deductible.
01:09:20.000 –> 01:09:24.000
I don’t wanna have a loss history going against me. If I choose that I don’t want that to affect future premium.
01:09:24.000 –> 01:09:36.000
Rates. So what I would make sure you have in place again is going back to if there is a water loss or something of that nature.
01:09:36.000 –> 01:09:43.000
You don’t believe it’s gonna exceed the deductible. Make sure you’ve got a reputable water mitigation company.
01:09:43.000 –> 01:09:52.000
That’s documenting the extent of damage. It’s making sure you don’t have any concealed damages within the wall cavities and things of that nature that’s going to end up be a bigger financial liability or all around liability down on the road.
01:09:52.000 –> 01:10:01.000
You are gonna have to act quickly to address the issue. You have to mitigate your loss. And then as you’re going in, you’ve got reputable contractors.
01:10:01.000 –> 01:10:11.000
Whether it be GC or subs that are giving you general pricing on what the reconstruction cost may be.
01:10:11.000 –> 01:10:20.000
But we all know we’re talking about condo unit owners here, some that aren’t living there currently, some that are seasonal, some that are just a pain in the rear, right?
01:10:20.000 –> 01:10:26.000
And they don’t want to comply and they don’t want to help. So You’ve got to just do the best with the information you have.
01:10:26.000 –> 01:10:37.000
Your broker most of the time is gonna want to report it and if you don’t have a loss that exceeds your deductible that pays out, it likely won’t go against your loss history.
01:10:37.000 –> 01:10:45.000
So, you know, you’ve gotta just make the decision there. And if you’ve got the relationships with your mitigation vendor, you see it’s a small loss.
01:10:45.000 –> 01:10:50.000
You can be taken care of. I wouldn’t be reporting it personally if it were me. But your broker may wanna have that on record to make sure that you have the availability.
01:10:50.000 –> 01:11:19.000
What I can tell you, the problematic part is, If it does balloon, if the law starts to increase and you did not report it timely and the insurance company did not get to invest the claim there could be a claim for prejudice against their investigation, timely reporting, and you could be violating areas of your policy, duties in the event of loss.
01:11:19.000 –> 01:11:25.000
So like I said, I’m talking out both sides of my mouth here because it’s a case by case scenario.
01:11:25.000 –> 01:11:35.000
So I hope that answers your question. As much as possible, cause it’s impossible to put it in just one scenario.
01:11:35.000 –> 01:11:48.000
Yeah, and I think that’s a good point as to prejudice. I mean, You, you want to be acting pretty, but I mean most policies will say act promptly or the the white prompt is a keyword.
01:11:48.000 –> 01:12:00.000
But then the other side is, but you don’t want to prejudice yourself. In the event of a, of a claim, by, I don’t know, having damages done that are considered emergency damages.
01:12:00.000 –> 01:12:25.000
So I think that’s a good point. It’s definitely case by case, depends on the the damage that occurred, policy, and what have you, but you do wanna, yeah, you want, you wanna be acting quickly as far as, determining what the issue is, determining what to do, and all that.
01:12:25.000 –> 01:12:26.000
Good.
01:12:26.000 –> 01:12:37.000
There’s also a. Spoliation issue. Which is just a fancy legal and public adjusted word for, basically doing the work before the insurance company adjust the guest to see what the damage was.
01:12:37.000 –> 01:12:41.000
And so like, they can’t just say, oh, tell us what happens and we’ll believe that, that was what the damage is.
01:12:41.000 –> 01:13:01.000
And we’ll believe that, that was what the damage is. If you do all the repairs and then after we put it to the insurance company and say pass, here’s our bill from the contractor, they’re probably gonna laugh at you.
01:13:01.000 –> 01:13:13.000
I also want to add one more complication to a question at the end which was all of our complication to a question at the end, which was all of our units have HO 3 policies.
01:13:13.000 –> 01:13:21.000
I assume the single family detached condominium units. HO 3 policies. I assume the single family detached condominium units.
01:13:21.000 –> 01:13:30.000
The, issue that that, make you a little more nervous for the person who asked the question.
01:13:30.000 –> 01:13:43.000
Is what if the unit and this is happens what if the unit burns to the ground And the, does not have an HO 3 policy.
01:13:43.000 –> 01:13:54.000
There’s gonna be this, no ability to demolish. No insurance, coverage from the master policy.
01:13:54.000 –> 01:14:08.000
There should be something in place in terms of it’s going to be nice or and the question is Yeah, you, you’re gonna say, well, to say, you’re an enormous problem.
01:14:08.000 –> 01:14:12.000
Well, it becomes this, every owner’s problem if the place looks like a disaster area.
01:14:12.000 –> 01:14:26.000
I think that might be beyond what Joan and Craig have ever seen, but you can tell us if you have seen it.
01:14:26.000 –> 01:14:35.000
I personally have not. I think the topic for another time will be what’s happening in South Florida.
01:14:35.000 –> 01:14:47.000
With some everything that fall out with surf side and developers absorbing some of these properties down there but I have not seen that that instance that you’re referring to Stephen.
01:14:47.000 –> 01:14:57.000
I’ve seen it once. And it wasn’t. Pretty, I think it sat like that for.
01:14:57.000 –> 01:15:12.000
A couple of years and, I think I got resolved, but for the person who said they require a to have the HO 3 and the association really doesn’t cover the units at all.
01:15:12.000 –> 01:15:42.000
Talk to your master agent about what they suggest if the. You that goes down, there’d be insurance carriers who would say to you, we don’t want you tracking when each, HO 3 policy expires because we think that puts a duty on you as the board to make sure that the unit owners all renew their policies.
01:15:51.000 –> 01:15:55.000
So it’s a very interesting question. I have like most things I don’t have a good answer to it, but.
01:15:55.000 –> 01:16:07.000
Something to talk to your agent about.
01:16:07.000 –> 01:16:13.000
Great. Yeah, we got a, we also got a question on, might we presume that a disaster preparedness plan is done with input from local first responders and authorities.
01:16:13.000 –> 01:16:20.000
Should we ask our town for access to these plans? I mean, sometimes this could be an evacuation plan if it was like a hurricane or something.
01:16:20.000 –> 01:16:38.000
Or measures in place for a freeze or what have you. I think, yeah, I mean, there’s different ways to address might apply to your exact county.
01:16:38.000 –> 01:17:06.000
Or town or what have you, but i would say it more depends on the the structure of your association, what kind of what kind of because as we say with governing documents each Set of governing documents is going to vary it’s it’s nice to have a template but rules and regulations are gonna, gonna be different from even just, I mean, this is a prime example, Florida
01:17:06.000 –> 01:17:08.000
versus Massachusetts. That’s too, this might not be. kind of susceptible.
01:17:08.000 –> 01:17:29.000
To a hurricane. Florida won’t be. Susceptible to a snowstorm or or freezes although it’s 60 there today so apparently they might but you know it’s gonna vary it’s gonna be case by case.
01:17:29.000 –> 01:17:40.000
I mean, sure, if the town has kind of a disaster plan in place, that may be a good a good kind of starting point but I think it’s going to it’s got a very depending on where you are.
01:17:40.000 –> 01:17:51.000
Yep. Okay. I’m skeptical as to whether towns and counties. Provide those plans, but so I defer to Jordan and Craig.
01:17:51.000 –> 01:18:04.000
As to whether you see that. A board could somebody or the property members could simply approach the town and say, gee, what do you suggest?
01:18:04.000 –> 01:18:30.000
Yeah, I mean, local governments always have a plan in place for worst case scenario, especially Florida with the hurricane environment and we always have to have plan of your own, as we know, Like I said earlier, playing office and not defense and handling your own situation in your own hands and having contact you need to make sure that you’re putting in a position to succeed is going to put you in the best possible
01:18:30.000 –> 01:18:46.000
position. Yes, there’s always resources from local governments to help you. If a natural disaster strikes, but at the end of the day, you always want to make sure you have your best interest in mind and develop your own catastrophic plan in advance.
01:18:46.000 –> 01:18:47.000
Definitely. So I think I think we’ve kind of gotten past the well well past the hour at this point.
01:18:47.000 –> 01:19:12.000
I think we should rename this the the Marcus hour and a half. That’s usually how long these go, which good where we’re happy to provide the information we’re very thankful for Jordan and Craig taking this their time this this Tuesday morning to kind of address these very important issues and we have we have the contact information here on the last slide.
01:19:12.000 –> 01:19:24.000
We have the the contact information here on the last slide. And, yeah, we thank everyone for joining us as well.
01:19:24.000 –> 01:19:37.000
Anything else you guys want to add last last kind of piece of advice or or football, football, gloating if you’re an FSU fan, I guess.
01:19:37.000 –> 01:19:43.000
Yeah, don’t don’t run the ball when you can take a knee and go nulls Okay.
01:19:43.000 –> 01:19:44.000
Yeah. Here now. Yeah.
01:19:44.000 –> 01:19:47.000
Oh my gosh. No.
01:19:47.000 –> 01:19:52.000
Okay. Yeah.
01:19:52.000 –> 01:19:53.000
Yeah, I mean.
01:19:53.000 –> 01:19:54.000
So.
01:19:54.000 –> 01:20:07.000
Thanks and Jake for having us for sure. We know that claims are the most invigorating subject in the world, but for condominiums in your audience these things are incredibly important and the biggest regret we see is not having a plan so I’m glad we got to talk about some of those items.
01:20:07.000 –> 01:20:13.000
Appreciate you guys having us on.
01:20:13.000 –> 01:20:14.000
Yeah, thank you.
01:20:14.000 –> 01:20:22.000
Okay, our final question didn’t seem to have a question like at the end of it. It was buck eyes all the way.
01:20:22.000 –> 01:20:27.000
That’s hey, they’re playing pretty well. What are they? They’re 3 right now?
01:20:27.000 –> 01:20:29.000
Yeah.
01:20:29.000 –> 01:20:30.000
Okay, I think Jordan has a cheap time in about 5 min.
01:20:30.000 –> 01:20:31.000
Just ahead of FSU. Okay. Yeah.
01:20:31.000 –> 01:20:37.000
Okay. I did. Just wearing a master shirt. I’m at the office today, but.
01:20:37.000 –> 01:20:38.000
Yeah.
01:20:38.000 –> 01:20:41.000
He’s already, he’s already late, Stephen. He’s already late first T time.
01:20:41.000 –> 01:20:45.000
Yeah.
01:20:45.000 –> 01:20:46.000
That’s not great.
01:20:46.000 –> 01:20:49.000
Yeah.
01:20:49.000 –> 01:20:50.000
Hi.
01:20:50.000 –> 01:20:51.000
Thank you.
01:20:51.000 –> 01:20:52.000
Hey, I think he’s like everything. I don’t know. Very laid back. But we really appreciate having you on.
01:20:52.000 –> 01:21:05.000
Hopefully we can, do this again now that you Good, gotten a, look at our, at least my rude interrupting style.
01:21:05.000 –> 01:21:26.000
And going off on tangents because the mold, but we can adjust for maybe do something where Jake can put me on mute as as it’s needed but I hope that this was value to the audience As I said.
01:21:26.000 –> 01:21:39.000
We, we typically will take the questions that were unanswered. Or even answered, shoot you back a, an answer run by Jordan and Craig.
01:21:39.000 –> 01:21:49.000
And Jeff, send that along with the PowerPoint to you. Sometime next week.
01:21:49.000 –> 01:21:55.000
But Jordan and Craig, thank you so much for, being on today.
01:21:55.000 –> 01:21:58.000
Thank you guys for everything.
01:21:58.000 –> 01:21:59.000
Thanks everyone.
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