By: Diana Banaszynski, IIAW Events & Education Coordinator and HR Advisor

This article was originally published in the May 2022 Wisconsin Independent Agent. 

Recruiting has been a hot topic, especially with a record high of 4.5 million Americans quitting their jobs in November 2021 alone. With organizations on a hiring spree, they may want to also think about ways to retain their current workforce. As retention efforts rise, you might hear the phrase “stay interview” more often.

What is a stay interview?

Think of it as the opposite of an exit interview. Rather than asking what went well and what could you as an employer have done to keep that employee from leaving. This is an opportunity for employers to learn what motivates that employee and areas of improvement before it’s too late. There are many benefits to conducting stay interviews. Not only do they give employers the opportunity to resolve a situation before losing an employee, but it allows that employee to feel valued.

Conducting Stay interviews establish trust between the employee and their manager, identifies issues that can be addressed before that employee plans on leaving, also gives the company insight into their strengths and areas to improve upon. Stay interviews are not new. But they are becoming an important tool in preventing employees to leave for greener pastures.

How often should stay interviews happen?

Stay interviews should be conducted annually for all employees and anytime an employee appears to be disengaged for a prolong period of time.  As for new employees, stay interviews should be conducted after 90 days of employment. This gives the employee time to get settled into their new role. Stay interview with a new hire will give employers better insight into their onboarding process, training, and any opportunities they may want to consider.

Ideally, these one-on-one conversations benefit from occurring in-person. That may not always be the case with limited staff and resources. Perhaps starting with some sort of survey tool to capture the employees’ thoughts and feedback is just as effective. Work with managers to target their high-performing or at-risk employees then overtime meeting with all employees. Whether it’s in-person or not, these conversations are still important as ever.

Let’s start the conversation

Employers should strive to create a relaxed and safe environment that will hopefully allow for a meaningful conversation. The key is for employers to listen. Employees need to feel comfortable enough to share positive and negative feedback and know it will be heard without consequence.

In an effective stay interview, managers ask predetermined and structured questions in a casual and communicative manner. The conversation should be simple and a two-way conversation. Employers should review feedback, identify any issues, look for opportunities for improvement and provide feedback to employees. Be transparent on your plan for improvement - employees want to know that steps are being taken to address any concerns.

In an effort to retain top talent, stay interviews should become a priority. This feedback allows organizations to see where they are doing well and how they can do better.

By: Angela Oroian, Vice President & Executive Managing Director, Society of Environmental Insurance Professionals 

Angela Oroian is vice president & executive managing director of the Society of Environmental Insurance Professionals (SEIP), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit association dedicated to helping its members utilize environmental insurance products to provide more valuable services to their customers.

SEIP enhances the professional capabilities of its members through focused educational forums, technology-enhanced knowledge management and access to specialized multi-disciplined resources in fields related to environmental risk management. 

This article was originally published here from iamagazine.com on April 4, 2022.

The insurance industry has faced the most significant digital revolution in the recent decade, completely changing how real estate portfolios are underwritten, bought and sold. In a hardening market, with narrowing carrier appetites, this puts pressure on real estate transactions to be adaptive, competitive and meaningful with terms and conditions provided.

The most significant barrier to meaningful terms and conditions is the quality control of submission data between parties. A quality submission, or lack thereof, could make or break a business relationship or a sale between parties.

How does the quality control of submission data play such a pivotal role? "It starts and ends with a good submission," says Joe Quarantello, senior vice president, Risk Strategies. Submission quality for a risk sets the foundation for a win, whether it's for a broker to an insured, an underwriter to a broker, custom-designed technology systems for underwriters and brokers, legal team to brokers, and so forth.

The revolution of technology, constant quality control of submission data, and the heart of insurance— utmost good faith—are fundamental to creating favorable outcomes among partners in real estate transactions. A group of experts answered the burning questions on submission quality in real estate portfolios.

Disorganized Data

In an airing of grievances at an underwriter's Festivus—see “Seinfeld," season 9, episode 10—the most pronounced undoubtedly has to be: Why does the schedule of values (SOV) never match the environmental site assessments?

The amount of time and energy that all parties spend reviewing and analyzing data in submissions is highly inefficient. “I really think that people in the real estate portfolio world for environmental insurance spend half their time battling organization of the submission," says Michael Gill, Partner, Synapse Services LLC. “This has been an ongoing issue in this space for as long as I have been in environmental insurance."

The disorganization of data is one of the biggest barriers to thoughtful terms and conditions. How can the most crucial part of the submission be given the least amount of time in a portfolio presentation?

We have all heard the term “time is money," and when accessing a deal or opportunity, presentation is everything. Thoughtful presentation of data by default shows receiving parties the seriousness and professionalism of the presented portfolio. In transactions like real estate portfolios, there will always be teams of experts on the opportunity.

An organized presentation of data is the equivalent to dressing for success. Equally, the result of an unorganized submission with a lack of data can portray a lack of seriousness or indicate a lack of controls in place to receive the necessary data to offer the best terms and conditions for that risk. A great rule of thumb is to lead with your best submission foot forward.

Industry Experience

This isn't to say that meaningful terms and conditions are not given ample consideration by underwriters, even if some submissions resemble Swiss cheese rather than a real estate portfolio.

Industry knowledge and experience play a crucial part. “In the past, underwriters understood these real estate portfolios' risk historically and industrial usages were underwritten to that historical knowledge. But with emerging contaminants, you are also going to get more questions," says Hiral Shah, senior vice president, Environmental Sompo Global Risk Solutions. For example, different kinds of industrial use indicate potential exposures that need to be underwritten.

“Many emerging contaminants are changing in the marketplace now, not just the usual ones we hear about," Shah says. “Today, there's more of a renewed focus around the tenant uses, what kind of tenants are being brought on, [whether] they have environmental insurance in place—that data is even more pertinent now to the underwriting review."

In bridging data gaps in submissions, “the most effective broker knows their client and obtains the information needed, whether that be from a principal of the insured, the risk management department, the legal department or the operations department," says Marcel Ricciardelli, senior vice president, Allied World Environmental and Design Professional Divisions.

Established relationships and knowledge of risks can eliminate a substantial amount of rework between the broker and the underwriter. If brokers can collect the information to the underwriting questions that would impact the terms and conditions, it results in the best terms and conditions.

Equally important is that the portfolio presentation recap all information collected—and information not presented—that the client provides. Setting expectations and timelines on data collection also shows the professionalism and seriousness of the broker toward the proposed risk or portfolio.

Timing and Tech

A silver lining to data and submission presentation is that “a perfect submission does not need to be onerous to put together," Shah says. “It's just the timing of the work as to when you're going to do it. Either before the submission, after the submission or after binding."

Environmental insurance industry leaders unanimously agree that underwriters must include certain criteria in a submission. Accurate and organized information should include:

• SOVs.

• Loss runs.

• Environmental site assessments and current reports.

• Ensuring the number of sites on SOV correspond

   with assessments.

Specialized technology also helps improve submission quality in real estate portfolios and can play a considerable role in handling an organization's "grunt work." Most organizations have a digital ecosystem of software they use to harness, sort and exploit data to maximum capacity and efficiency. But with any run-of-the-mill technology, there are also barriers to the degree to which the best results from software can yield the best results.

The history of insurance industry technology shows that the information needed has remained the same, but the way the information is collected has been revolutionized. In the 1990s, businesses upgraded from yellow pads and dusty physical data rooms to passing around Excel spreadsheets for property lists and electronic Word or PDF documents. Today, data transmission is primarily via email and file transfer protocol (FTP) sites. However, file size limits and "bucket-of-docs" architecture make downloading laborious.

From a brokerage standpoint, “previous technologies never solved the unanimous issue of inconsistent file naming and the constant fear of carriers not receiving information, which could result in losing a deal from a brokerage standpoint," Quarantello says. “The amount of time and energy spent on handmade Excel spreadsheets leaves far too much room for human error, especially if the real estate portfolios are consisting of 20, even 30 or more sites."

In utmost good faith, insurance brokers should never make the underwriter make assumptions on the risk. This is when things can be misunderstood to the detriment of terms and conditions and, ultimately, your insureds.

"There is value to communication around what are must-haves or the priority of the information needed," Shah says. “This goes hand in hand with the submission quality."

Quality Characteristics

So what are the characteristics of a quality submission? A master property list with good addresses is fundamental, as is a complete list of engineering documents. But there are plenty of portfolios underwritten on mismatched spreadsheets with missing documents.

According to David Oldow, principal at Griptiller LLC, there are two important steps to sharing solid submission data between transaction partners:

1) Data gathering. Brokers sort and reconcile data provided by their clients to get an understanding of the risk as well as the quality and completeness of the supporting data. Miscellaneous docs are culled, a master property list is confirmed, and the age and quality of reports are noted. This is a great opportunity to work with the client to perfect the data.

2) Data presentation. The data is presented to the market to ensure a quick understanding of the risk, including making it easy to download. Underwriters with a good picture of the portfolio can quickly calculate their underwriting workload and get into the documents. Speed, accuracy, communication and efficiency improve when manual processes are digitized.

Have crucial conversations with all transaction partners to yield the best terms and conditions. Presenting the Swiss cheese equivalent of a submission may result in the Swiss cheese equivalent of terms and conditions.

If you are providing a quality submission through organized data, using custom-designed technology for real estate portfolio transactions and maintaining utmost good faith, it only results in "better business relationships that work together innovatively with trust and credibility for all partners," Quarantello says.

By: MIsha Lee | IIAW Lobbyist

This article was originally published in the May 2022 Wisconsin Independent Agent. 

Governor Tony Evers signed 2021 Wisconsin Act 260 into law this past month. The Act updates our state statutes to establish that before an annuity is sold, it is considered to be in the best interest of the consumer. The legislation passed both houses unanimously and was heavily supported by various Life Insurance interest groups.

Under the law that formally goes into effect on November 16, 2022, before a financial professional recommends an annuity to a consumer, they must first disclose their role in the transaction and any material conflict of interest. Financial professionals are also required to document their recommendation and justification in written form to ensure that they made the recommendation to address the consumer’s needs and objectives. The law is intended to provide additional consumer protections and awareness by creating a higher standard for selling annuities.

The original legislation was introduced by State Senator Rob Stafsholt (R-New Richmond) and State Representative Kevin Petersen (R-Waupaca), both of whom are members of the standing Insurance committees and strong advocates for the insurance industry.

Also in April, the Governor signed 2021 Wisconsin Act 232 which was recommended this session by the Worker's Compensation Advisory Council (WCAC) as part of the traditional Workers’ Compensation Agreed Upon Bill negotiated over many months by Labor and Management with strong insurance industry input. Three insurer representatives from West Bend Mutual, Sentry Insurance and Liberty Mutual currently serve as non-voting members of the council. It’s the first WC Agreed Bill that’s been enacted in several legislative sessions and that received less legislative scrutiny this time around than from prior session bills.

WI Act 232 makes various changes to the workers’ compensation law, including:

• Increases the maximum weekly compensation rate for

   permanent partial disability from $362 to $415 for

   injuries occurring before January 1, 2023, and to $430

   for injuries occurring on or after that date.

• Part-time employment and wage expansion - The

   Act replaces the provision in current law regarding

   employees who are members of a regularly-scheduled

   class of part-time employees with a provision that

   applies to employees who work less than full time.

   Under this provision, an injured employee's average

   weekly wage is calculated as the greater of 1) The

   hourly rate at the time of injury multiplied by the

   average number of hours worked per week for the 52

   calendar weeks before his or her injury or 2) The actual

   average weekly earnings of the employee for the 52

   calendar weeks before his or her injury.

• Observers in examinations - The Act allows an

   employee to have an observer, chosen and provided

   by the employee, present during a medical

   examination that is requested by an employer or

   insurer following a claim for worker's compensation.

• The Act provides that any person, who at any

   time employs three or more employees for services

   performed in this state, is subject to the worker's

   compensation law and specifies that a person

   becomes subject to that law on the day on which the

   person employs three or more employees for services

   performed in this state.

The Legislature has now adjourned its regular floor session pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1 (SJR1) and legislators have returned to their respective districts to campaign for reelection in their newly drawn districts. The fall partisan primary will be held on Tuesday, August 9 and the fall general election is on Tuesday, November 8.

Happy Thursday! In this week's Big I Buzz, we have news about WCRB's rate changes, fraud in disaster claims and a look at how auto insurance rates have changed over the past decade. We also want to thank all of you that attended InsurCon2022 last week! Look for an InsurCon recap coming soon!

Today, WCRB (Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau) announced an -8.47% rate change (8.47% decrease). This rate change will become effective October 1, 2022.The Circular Letter announcing this change can be found here.


Fraud in Disaster Claims Cost Insurers as much as $9.2B in 2021
In 2021, property & casualty insurers paid an additional $4.6 billion-$9.2 billion in disaster claims as a result of fraud, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).

The NICB estimates fraud adds 5%-10% to the overall amount in claims paid after a disaster. The FBI found similar results when looking at reconstruction costs following Hurricane Katrina: Of the $80 billion in government funding to aid rebuilding efforts, insurance fraud accounted for $6 billion, or about 7.5%.

Fraud is also contributing to increasing insurance costs across the U.S., according to NICB, which noted contractor fraud is one element contributing to the property insurance crisis in Florida.

How Auto Insurance Rates have Changed Over the Past Decade
1970s
– Average monthly insurance premium: $56
– Premium increase from start of decade: $34 (up 80%)

1980s
– Average monthly insurance premium: $119
– Premium increase from start of decade: $85 (103%)

1990s
– Average monthly insurance premium: $225
– Premium increase from start of decade: $76 (43%)

2000s
– Average monthly insurance premium: $315
– Premium increase from start of decade: $100 (39%)

2010s
– Average monthly insurance premium: $464
– Premium increase from start of decade: $196 (52%)

2020s
– Average monthly insurance premium: $564
– Premium increase from start of decade: $38 (7%)

For more news, check out the Action News section of our weekly e-newsletter, Big I Buzz. If you aren’t subscribed, click here to add your email to our emailing list.

By: Mallory Cornell, IIAW Vice President

This article was originally published in the May 2022 Wisconsin Independent Agent

Many of you have been participants in my E&O Risk Management courses and have heard me discuss the importance of a Social Media Policy. Perhaps you’ve even requested a sample template from me. Whether it’s a reminder or an introduction, giving employees guidance for how you want them to represent the agency when they’re online is crucial.

What is the purpose of a Social Media Policy?

The primary functions of a Social Media Policy are to: guarantee a constructive relationship between the organization and its employees, manage risk and preserve the agency’s reputation, discourage the use of company time for personal social media activities, and promote awareness among employees of how their personal information can be accessed and interpreted online.

Why do we need one?

It is important to provide guidance on several aspects of utilizing social media. From everything to defining what “social media” includes to how the individual should represent (or not represent) the agency and the agency brand. As an example, the agency would identify topics such as: do not impersonate the agency or its employees, make statements on behalf of the agency without authorization, or make statements that can be construed as establishing the agency’s official position or policy on any particular issue.

How do I get one?

Just ask! Your friends at the IIAW can provide a sample Social Media Policy for you to tailor to your agency needs and implement within your organization. The sample document outlines the basic needs of the agency. It also includes a place for an employee to acknowledge they’ve received and reviewed the Social Media Policy. This document should be a part of every employee’s personnel file and reviewed on an annual basis.

Reach out today for your complimentary copy of an agency Social Media Policy or any other template you may need to create or update.