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.

Happy Wednesday! In this week's Big I Buzz, we are discussing our August Sales & Leadership Conference, the Memorial Day weekend travel forecast and states hit hardest by inflation. 

AAA 2022 Memorial Day Travel Forecast Shows Pre-Pandemic Travel Levels

AAA has released their 2022 Memorial Day Holiday Travel Forecast, and it seems as though travel through this holiday is full-steam ahead! Travel for the holiday weekend is nearing pre-pandemic levels. 

Highlights from the forecast: 

• Memorial Day travel to increase 8.3% over 2021 to 39.2 million. Rising prices are not deterring travel's resurgence this Memorial Day weekend, with travel volumes expected to reach 92% of pre-pandemic levels in 2019. 

• Car travel to increase 4.6% over 201 to 34.9 million. Despite historic highs in gas prices that began in early March, car travel remains a popular choice and will approach 93% of 2019's volume. 

• More than 3 million people will fly this holiday weekend. Air travel continues to rebound, up 25% over 2021 and will make up 7.7% of all holiday weekend travelers, the highest share for air travel since 2011. 

• Travel by other modes will triple from last year's level, with 1.3 million people using transportation like buses, trains and cruise ships. 

The IIAW has shared a graphic outlining the forecast highlights on our Facebook page and in our Big I Buzz email. Feel free to share this with your clients to encourage safe & alert travel this holiday weekend. 

2022 Sales & Leadership Summit  - An IIAW & MarshBerry Partnership

Join the IIAW on August 23 & 24 in Neenah, WI for our 2022 Sales & Leadership Summit, a partnership with MarshBerry. MarshBerry is a nationally recognized advisory firm and top growth consultant for insurance agents, brokers & carriers. MarshBerry instructors will deliver an action-packed 1.5-day summit filled with fantastic topics you won't want to miss. Whether you are looking to train a new sales producer or develop a sales management team, this summit will provide solutions to build and maintain sustainable sales practices and strategies. Stay tuned for our June magazine, where we'll be giving an in-depth look at the different topics that will be covered throughout the summit. 

Registration is $249 per person and includes your ticket and dinner for the Timber Rattlers game. We have limited space available for the event and we encourage everyone to sign up early to secure your spot. Learn more about the event here. 

QuoteWizard: States Hardest Hit By Inflation

A recent study by QuoteWizard, an insurance shopping website, compared the impact of inflation in 2021 versus 2022. Their study found that these are the top 10 states affected (spoiler alert: Wisconsin is among the top 10 states impacted!).

10. Idaho - 5% of people had a "very difficult time" in June 2021 vs. 12% in May 2022. 

9. Montana - 5% of people had a "very difficult time" in June 2021 vs. 12% in May 2022. 

8. Maine - 6% of people had a "very difficult time" in June 2021 vs. 15% in May 2022. 

7. Washington (tie) - 4% of people had a "very difficult time" in June 2021 vs. 10% in May 2022. 

7. Louisiana (tie) - 10% of people had a "very difficult time" in June 2021 vs. 25% in May 2022. 

6. Wisconsin  - 5% of people had a "very difficult time" in June 2021 vs. 13% in May 2022. 

5. New Hampshire - 5% of people had a "very difficult time" in June 2021 vs. 13% in May 2022. 

4. Indiana - 5% of people had a "very difficult time" in June 2021 vs. 13% in May 2022. 

3. Missouri - 6% of people had a "very difficult time" in June 2021 vs. 16% in May 2022. 

2. Florida - 8% of people had a "very difficult time" in June 2021 vs. 22% in May 2022. 

1. Arkansas - 5% of people had a "very difficult time" in June 2021 vs. 15% in May 2022. 

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.

Whether your agency is big or small, the more markets you have access to, the better chance you have to write more business. Wisconsin has made market access an integral part of your membership through our investment in the Independent Market Solutions (IMS) program, a market access solution for any size agency.

For new or smaller agencies with few or no direct appointments, IMS can help you gain new carrier appointments as IMS subproducers. As an IMS subproducer, you’ll start building relationships directly with carriers, earn standard commissions, and, once minimum premium thresholds and performance standards are met, gain the opportunity to “graduate” to a direct appointment. Agents can also participate in any earned contingencies as an IMS subproducer.  

If you manage a mid- to large-sized agency, there are likely times when you’re presented with niche pieces of business. You’ve worked hard to earn your clients’ business, so why turn away a request on a risk that your agency doesn’t currently write? Our IMS program can help satisfy your clients’ needs without taking on additional minimums or referring them elsewhere due to the lack of available markets.

No matter the size of your agency, the IMS menu is constantly evolving to include new carriers intended to expand your strike zone. Click here to see which carrier partners might be the right fit for your agency.

By: Chris Boggs, Big "I" Executive Director of Risk Management and Education

This article was originally published within the VU Research Library here August 2021.

Compared to more common property insurance policies, National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policy forms are quite intriguing. First, the Federal government wrote them; and second, they use terms and conditions not found in other property policy forms. The three NFIP coverage forms are highlighted in the following paragraphs.

Three Policy Forms

Each Standard Flood Insurance Policy (SFIP) form issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) specifies the terms, conditions, and agreement between FEMA (as the insurer) and the named insured. Major provisions are essentially the same among the three forms with the only differences being the qualifications for coverage, the limits available and the property valuation methods applied.

Dwelling Form

Approximately 85 percent of current NFIP policies are written using the dwelling form. It is designed for one- to-four-family structures primarily occupied as a residence. Homeowners, residential renters, owners of two-to-four-unit residential structures, residential townhouse or row house owners, and the owner of an individual unit in a condominium building are eligible for the dwelling form.

Property insured on the dwelling form is valued at replacement cost provided two requirements are met:

• Property is insured to at least 80 percent of

   its value or the maximum coverage

   available—whichever is less; and

• The insured lives in the residence at least

   80 percent of the year.

If either of these requirements is not met, the most the insured is going to receive is the property's actual cash value (ACV).

Although the policy states that replacement cost is paid if 80 percent of the value is carried, this is not a coinsurance form, it is an “insurance-to-value" form.

Like the homeowners' form, the SFIP dwelling form pays the greater of actual cash value or the amount developed in the insurance-to-value calculation; but only if the insured lives at the residence 80 percent of the year. If both conditions are not met, losses are paid at actual cash value. These caveats are why this is not the equivalent of a coinsurance form.

In regular program communities, coverage for buildings and contents is limited to a specified maximum. Current (as of August 2021) maximum limits are $250,000 on the structure and $100,000 on contents (which applies to renters as well).

General Property Form

Owners or lessees of “other residential" and nonresidential structures or units are eligible for protection under the General Property Form. Residential structures with five or more units, hotels or motels, apartment buildings, cooperative condominiums, assisted living facilities and dormitories are examples of “other residential" structures insurable on the general property form. Nonresidential structures, as is evidenced by the name, are any structures where people do not live and includes stores, office buildings, manufacturing facilities, warehouses, churches, schools, detached garages, commercial condominiums, and any other eligible structure not normally considered a place of residence.

Structures and contents insured on the general property form are valued at actual cash value with no other option available.

Maximum limits differ depending on the classification of the structure. “Other residential" structures are limited to a maximum of $500,000 on the structure and $100,000 on the contents. Nonresidential structures are eligible for maximum limits up to $500,000 on the building and another $500,000 for the contents. (As of August 2021.)

Residential Condominium Building Association Policy (RCBAP)

The Residential Condominium Building Association Policy (RCBAP) provides building coverage and, if desired, can be used to provide contents coverage for common use personal property for residential condominium buildings, provided 75 percent or more of the building is residential use. Coverage is written in the name of the association for the benefit of the association and the unit owners. Only buildings with a condominium form of ownership are eligible for this coverage form. The unit owners must take title and deed to specific units.

Cooperative condominiums are not eligible for the RCBAP as title to a specific unit is not passed to the occupier of the unit; an “owner" buys stock in the cooperative and is allowed to live in a particular unit (based on the amount of stock purchased). Timeshare buildings may be eligible for the RCBAP if condominium-style ownership is offered in jurisdictions which allow that title to individual units be vested in the owners' names (a fee simple-type arrangement allowing the title to be transferred to heirs).

Property insured on the RCBAP is valued at replacement cost. In fact, this is the only form that offers a true insurance-to-value (coinsurance) clause similar to the homeowners' or commercial property policy.

Much higher limits are available for buildings insurable under the RCBAP. Up to $250,000 per unit, per building is available. For example, an insured can purchase up to $2.5 million in protection for a 10-unit building. Coverage for commonly owned personal property is limited to $100,000 per building.