Fraud Friday

Funniest insurance fraud stories EVER.......a home is "relocated" when it falls off the back of a truck, a windshield is broken by voodoo....

Read More Here.

Top Seven Mistakes Business Owners Make Filing Insurance Claims

Read Article Here

Like many of you, I own my own business.  Like most business owners I have to know how to do a lot of different things that are outside of my core competency.  There are a lot of things I’ve learned how to do just by having to do them over and over in order to keep my business going.  Repetition helps me acquire competency (unless I’m doing it wrong, in which case repetition induces incompetency), so I become proficient at most aspects of my business.

The problem is when I’m faced with situations that are a one-time event.  If I’m only going to be doing something one time I usually have neither the opportunity nor the motivation to seek competency… let alone mastery.  I have a choice at that point; (1)  try not to screw up whatever it is I need to do this one time, or (2) hire someone who is competent at this one-time task.  Most of us business owners will default to choice number one.

That’s why articles like the one I’ve posted here are so useful.  There is just enough information here to keep you from screwing up TOO badly because this article doesn’t overwhelm you with a data dump in order to try to coach you to mastery of insurance claims.  If you follow these seven useful tips your insurance claim won’t be a second catastrophe on top of the first.

However, if you sense that your claim ISN’T going well then stop what you’re doing and call CDR.  If we can’t help you, we’ll put you in touch with someone who WILL.

Dialogue

My office looks out onto Dexter Avenue North which is the main commuter route for bicyclists into downtown Seattle. 

Dexter used to be a dangerous stretch of potholes, cracked pavement, barely visible lines, blind curves, and an unacknowledged bike lane. There were two lanes of traffic in each direction which most drivers considered a speedway to and from work.

In front of the Starbucks, Sushi Bay, and Taco Del Mar patrons would park, exit their vehicle, re-enter their vehicle laden with drinks and/or food, and re-enter traffic without ever accounting for the bicyclists whizzing past.Experienced bicycle commuters knew to be ever vigilant for the sudden stops, turns, and acceleration of several thousand pound vehicles as their drivers scramble for precious parking and then bolt back into traffic just ahead of line of cars.

Every driver was looking out for other cars and pedestrians, but too many of them were oblivious to bicyclists. Even if a car wasn’t pulling out right in front of them, bicyclists still had to contend with car doors suddenly thrown open right in their speeding path. In these instances, the bicyclist had three bad options: crash into the car door, slam on their brakes (probably not in time), or swerve into traffic.

For the past month or more Dexter has been torn up and overrun with heavy equipment. The deep gaping holes and exaggerated ridges during the first phase of construction made the original potholes and cracked pavement seem benign by comparison. Not only were there no visible lines for noting pedestrian crosswalks, bike lanes, or even north/south divisions; but the construction work required bright orange barrels to corral four lanes of traffic into one narrow lane each way north and south.

Frustrated commuters suffered congestion, delays, and insufficient room to maneuver (we were surprised that some of the larger SUVs and pick-ups were able to squeeze into the diminished lanes). Drivers were especially irritated to have to wait behind every bus stop, sanitation workers in huge lumbering garbage trucks picking up trash containers, construction delays, and travel at speeds no faster than the slowest bicyclist.

Some frustrated drivers become angry drivers. They’re angry at the construction work that is disrupting their normal commute, but they seem angrier at the bicyclists.

Amidst the angry drivers, dangerous roadway conditions, and the chaos of construction the bicyclists are riding scared, and for some people fear manifests as anger. Anger sometimes manifests as aggression.

So let’s recap the current Dexter Avenue North situation. An old, worn-out pavement is mutilated so that it can be repaired. All commuters, whether by vehicle, bus, or bicycle, are forced to share a very narrow strip of road. There is no existing protocol for accommodating the differing speeds and needs of these vehicles, buses, and bicycles all unhappily sharing this dangerous path. And they’re all at risk from construction crews and heavy equipment unconcerned with their commuting needs.

Remember, this was the best and safest route for bicyclists pedaling their way into downtown Seattle.

Notice my use of the past tense in relating the commuting situation for Dexter Avenue North.

From our office window and during our endurance of the miserable traffic jams and construction mayhem we are witnessing the transformation of Dexter Avenue North into a haven for bicycle commuters. Construction on the new roadway is scheduled well into October, but the potholes and cracked pavement have finally been torn up and covered over with fresh asphalt.

There are still no clearly visible lines to designate pedestrian crosswalks, bike lanes, and the north/south arterial, and the bright orange construction barrels are still in the middle of the street.

But the bus stop islands are in place, so drivers are getting used to having to stop and wait at every bus stop until the passengers have exited and loaded. On the new Dexter Avenue North impatient motorists will no longer be able to whip around the bus, and the buses will no longer have to wait for all the vehicles to go whizzing by before cautiously pulling back out into traffic.

The bike lane is routed on the other side of the bus stop AWAY from traffic. There is no more danger to the bicyclists or bus patrons from dodging erratically speeding cars trying to pass the bus.

Life will be good.

Tell that to Mike Wang. He was run over at the corner of Dexter Avenue North while bicycling home from work. His murderer has not yet been caught.

(S)he will.

Recalibration

“If you worry about what might be, and wonder what might have been, you will ignore what is.” -Anonymous, courtesy of Frederick Turner

It’s been ten years.  Ten long years, and ten years that flew by way too fast.

Our company was incorporated on September 12th, 2001.  It would have been incorporated the day before, but there was something else going on earlier that particular morning that precluded our local government from confirming our incorporation.

I was playing racquetball at the time of the initial 9/11 attack, and while at the drinking fountain between games  we looked up at the bank of televisions all showing the same awful scene on different networks.  Someone on a treadmill told us it was an airline crash, so we went back to our game.

At the end of our next game we came off the court to find out that the second World Trade Center and the Pentagon had both been hit.

No one else was running on the treadmills.  The health club was empty.  We were done with racquetball for the day.

I called my wife.  She said she was busy getting our girls off to school, and had no intention of interrupting their routine.  She told me she’d look in on the news after the girls left for school.

As usual I went to work.  There was nothing usual about work.

My office is in with Regus Business Centres.  Regus is based out of the United Kingdom, but their flagship United States office was in the second World Trade Center in New York.  Hannah Kelly, who managed our Regus facilities, was best friends with the manager of the World Trade Center offices.

Hannah told me that her friend called Regus’ corporate headquarters in London to tell them what happened to the first World Trade Center.  Her friend told them that most of the Regus clients wanted to exit the building immediately after the first plane crashed into the tower right outside their window.  The problem was that the fire and police officials told the Regus manager that it was safer to stay inside the building away from falling glass (and bodies).  The Regus decision makers told her to do whatever the safety officials told her.

By now everyone at Regus Corporate in London was watching the tragedy unfolding in real time on television.  They saw the flaming wreckage of the first plane and the horrific damage it caused.  They were on the phone with the manager of the World Trade Center location, and they knew more about what was going on than she did because they were following the news commentary.

They assured the Regus manager that the fire and police officials knew what they were doing, they had more information than she did, and that her best course of action was to do exactly as she was told.  Even the World Trade Center facilities manager was telling her that the building was safer inside than outside under a shower of falling, flaming debris.

She passed the information she had on to her Regus clients, and recommended that they stay put.  Only a few clients opted to exit the building.

A Regus employee (entirely coincidentally, the only male on staff) volunteered to go downstairs to evaluate the situation at ground level, and then report back.  His manager reluctantly agreed.  She told Corporate (who were staying on line throughout the crisis) that she felt like she was sending him off to his death.

The employee headed for the elevator, and the manager anxiously suggested that he take the stairs as a precaution against power failure or structural instability.  He told her they were 93 floors up, and that there was no way he was going to walk down and back 93 flights of stairs!

The second plane hit the second World Trade Center just a moment after the employee exited the elevator at ground level.

The people at Regus Corporate Headquarters were still on the phone with the New York manager, and they were watching the scene on television as the second plane hit.

The phone went dead.

None of those Regus employees or any of their clients who stayed behind was ever found.  The only survivor was the Regus employee who risked his life to assess the situation at ground level.

All of those who were lost will never be forgotten, but our memory of them will be especially vivid this weekend.  We owe them all to live a much better future than we have these ten years just now passed.

Fraud Friday

And you wonder why insurance companies Investigate claims.  Bashing insurance companies is the preferred recreation for lots of consumers, but there’s a reason why collecting on an insurance claim isn’t necessarily as quick and easy as we’d like it to be.

The people in this video ruin it for the rest of us.  They make insurance companies cautious, adjusters become suspicious and cynical, premiums go up, and the process makes legitimate claimants feel like they’re criminals.

We want to hear from YOU, especially you adjusters, about the more interesting and innovative frauds you’re seeing perpetrated.  NOT because we want people to duplicate those frauds, but because not enough people see what goes on with their less honest fellow insureds.

Remember, bad faith is a two way street.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Is Insurance An Overpriced Commodity?

As these pictures so aptly demonstrate, insurance is a commodity that’s an overpriced overhead expense… until you actually need it.  A claims professional is able to see the resurrection amidst the ruin and help make it a reality.  A dishonest claims person will either cheap it out so the business never recovers or inflate the claim all out of proportion to the loss so that the business owner takes the money and runs off without ever rebuilding.  Either way, the community loses.  In this instance, EVERYBODY wins!

VIEW MORE SIX FLAGS NEW ORLEANS PHOTOS HERE