Anchor Insurance Agency

I had the privilege of attending the University of Wisconsin’s Docks and Marinas program this year. I came away from the course with a deeper understanding of our industry both in the engineering field as well as the managerial and environmental aspects of marina business. I’d like to share with you what I learned.

Because of rising gas prices, slip renters have opted to stay in their slips and not spend money on gas and other related expenses. That being said, our industry has gone from a “parking lot” operation to that of a real service industry. Boaters are expecting more amenities and a higher level of service for their money than they ever have before.

According to a Marina Dock Age magazine’s survey; 66% of the nation’s marinas made a profit during 2010 and 69% reported higher occupancy rates than last year. Which sounds fine and dandy but they are still below pre-recession levels.

In our area, we are 1% higher than the national average but are still below where we need to be to declare the recession over. Of those who reported profits, most are only seeing a 10% increase in receipts. This is ok, but as marinas go we should see somewhere around 15%-20% rebound from the soft market.

This year, 43% of marinas have cut expenses. Fewer employees and less stock do help the service aspect of your marina.  You can find the actual article in next month’s Marina Dock Age magazine.  So what do we do…here are a couple of suggestions:

•  “Clean marinas” have seen more growth than that of their peers who have not made the switch.
• New value pricing mechanisms have sprung up allowing marinas to increase profits 10% while only seeing a 7% drop in occupancy.
•  Marinas that offer a wider array of electric service options have seen growth above that of their peers.
• There is an automatic payback to doing this. The upkeep of your marinas, retrofitting to improve electrical systems and switching over to a clean marina etc. can now help you reduce your insurance premium.

In studies performed marinas that have taken on aggressive maintenance and repair programs have had fewer losses than those of their peers who have had a “wait and see” attitude.

The smart move is not to wait for the next big storm to renovate and upgrade docks. We are here to help when that storm goes through but we need to do something to curb rising losses and premiums.

We are going to be offering 10-15% discounts on premiums for marinas we insure that take up this program we are setting forth.

The docking systems we have in our area are some of the most sophisticated and intricate docking systems in the United States. There are many products coming to the market that we should take advantage of to make our docks not only more resilient but safer and aesthetically pleasing.  We would like to be a part of, and aid in the success of the marina and boating industry in our region as well as offering the best insurance solutions for your needs as a marina owner. I highly recommend Wisconsin’s class. They are offering another class on renovating and repairing storm damaged docks in October 2012. I’ll be attending; I would like to see you there

I was going to write an article on how the U.S. government is following the European Union around like 5 year old following his older brother everywhere he goes, but I have been working several accounts lately were pricing was the insureds only concern. I had to stop that article and delay it for a few weeks because I am troubled by this trend.

 It would be nice to take the mad hatters top hat off, the purpose of insurance is to transfer the risk of a loss to a third party so that the financial consequence of said loss is easier to bear for the insured (insured means you). An alarming trend these days is to take for granted the coverage offered and bite on what’s cheapest regardless of coverage. I would like to address the concept “cheaper is better”, while cheaper might be easier to afford; it certainly doesn’t always cover the insured the right way or cover back end expenses (expenses after loss indirectly related to that loss). It’s going to be hard for me to talk about business insurance because I believe those who read this are most concerned with home or auto insurance and that’s fine there are plenty similarities between the two that will allow me to make a suitable case. First, your education as a consumer is key. Second, how much is too much? Roughly 40-70% (depending on size of account) of your premium goes to the company to help pay salaries and expenses related to your account then the agent gets his percentage and the remainder goes to a large pool for investing and to help pay losses. “So what, just make it cheaper!” The point is that without capital they cannot operate and provide us with insurance. There is truly a greater good system working here. It’s funny how the free market works, right?  How much is too much? Let’s explore this question by stating a point insurance companies makes to us agents constantly; “pennies for dollars”.  We are collectively financing losses with our pennies so that companies may pay out dollars. We are in business to indemnify our insureds or “make whole” after a loss and to do this many things need to happen. There is regulatory authority in our industry called Department of Insurance which sets rates and tells companies how to credit/debit accounts and even how much of the poorest exposures (see: my Driving Record) they have to take. A combined ratio tells the companies how there book of business is doing against losses and market conditions. Now that we know how the companies come to a base price: why do you pay something different than your neighbor? Simply put, your loss experience, insurers growth, market conditions, are you a “target” market. I would like to focus on the last “target” market. Insurers have an idea of what they want to insure, it’s not just a first come, first serve basis. Take companies A and B let’s say that they have the capacity to handle 10 million dollars worth of insured property each. It’s needless to say that they would want the best 10million they could find, right??? Yes, of course. SO, what’s the best??? Let’s say that company A is in a region with bad termites and company B is in region where there are a lot of windstorms. Company A would only want to insure homes built with certain types of construction and company B would want homes built to a specific wind rating. The savings will happen when you can buy insurance with the correct company that really wants your home and/or auto. The consumer needs to do some shopping we can’t just do the one and done thing. Also, your agent needs to be on top of “target” markets and be able to place you with the right company. Lastly, when shopping we must keep in mind that a couple of extra pennies upfront could help possibly get you more dollars later after a loss.

The Class Act: Threat or Opportunity?

First off thank you for stopping by to see what’s new on our blog!  I am the NEW Life and Health Agent and am excited to be able to reach out to so many people via the blog.  There are a lot of changes heading our way with the Health Care Reform and this particular blog will touch some of the basic concerns headed our way. 

Many of us were brought up to believe that we should show class no matter what the situation.  That we need to respect ourselves as well as others, taught never to chew with our mouths open, or burp abruptly in public, and most importantly by no means to use disgruntled language.  Well it saddens me to say that things have run a-muck.  The world’s standings are constantly changing to adapt to our new environment and the changes we so called “force upon selves”.  CLASS may have meant one thing in the past but today healthcare providers know it as Community Living Assistance Service and Supports (CLASS).  March 23 was the anniversary or President Obama signing the CLASS act of the health care reform in to law.  Like much of our daily duties numerous parts of this provision remain vague and will be later specified and developed through regulation.  But as all other aspects of the industry-altering legislation, for consumers and brokers we know that nothing will ever be the same.  Most brokers are concerned with the notion that income could be reduced, client relationships may be threatened, and the value propositions could be diminished.  This article reveals another “hidden benefit” that the health care reform will provide… coverage for long term care.  It’s a “gotcha deal”.   You will automatically be “offered” Long Term Care coverage through your employer’s health insurance policy and it will be a guaranteed issue unless you opt out.  The idea of high premiums and bad math give me shivers, not to mention the huge risk of adverse selection this provision will incur.  With that in mind we have approximately two years before these perceived threats will impact us as consumers.  I have always had an optimistic mindset that the glass is half full, that we were never given something we can’t handle, and after a long hard hitting week, I can always beam while saying “Thank GOD it’s Friday!”  Because of this I like to think that the reform will present opportunities rather than set backs; after all I am selling benefits.  Don’t get me wrong, it is frustrating but it will challenge us as professionals to find ways to better meet our client’s needs.  Its important to remember that with education comes opportunity, employers need guidance, and brokers need clients.  Please take a look at the attached article “The CLASS Act: Threat orOpportunity” for more information, and as always chime in with your thoughts and feelings!

The Man With Two Bodies

Introduction by Robert Calvert

As a KY agent for the past 30 years, I have seen plenty of workers compensation “duplicity” e.g. black lung. Workers compensation reform, however, has eliminated much of the abuse with regulation defining what constitutes a disability. 

The attached article describes another type of abuse that is most sensitive to the national conscience i.e. taking advantage of the public’s desire to “help” when we experience a natural disaster such as the 9/11 crisis.  The protagonist in our article is taking advantage of a system of benefit,  there doesn’t appear to be any fraud involved,  but greed does raise its “ugly head”.  There needs to be oversight to prevent abuse when national disasters occur.  Katrina had $10,000 mobile homes selling at 5 times the latter amount and, most recently, Hurricane Lee had its inflated gasoline prices.

 I don’t want to create another bureaucracy to oversee a bureaucracy, but there has to be some system of compliance.

 How do you feel when you read articles like “The Man With Two Bodies?”  Is this just an example of someone being smart and taking what he can from the system?

Too Social For their own Good

Hello all! My name is April Dale I am the Personal Lines Manager here at Anchor Insurance Agency. First and foremost I would like to say Thank You for visiting our blog.
I hope you find the posted article as entertaining as I did, actually it intrigued me. The fact that Insurance gurus have found that there are modern ways to investigate claims brings me confidence. This modern way, being that the social network world is right at their fingertips. If you are planning on committing insurance fraud, what is the first thing you do? Obviously contradict everything about it on your social network page! (Sarcasm) I am a fan of the good guy catching the bad guy, especially when the bad guy is caught because he lacks the much needed intelligence to pull off any kind of crime. You will find many examples of people, persons, and businesses who in the end, get caught red handed due to there own negligence. If you have the indecency to take the time to think up a claim that is fraud, yet not the brain to prove its truth by contradicting it on your own social network activity, you deserve to be caught. More power to any insurance claim investigator who is willing to look into an individual’s personal social networking life. I completely approve of the use of searching social networking sites to investigate a claim thought to be a fraud. That’s what the social networks are there for; you open your life for others to view, and if you are being shady, someone is going to see it.

Yours Truly,

April Dale

One in Four Americans Could Not Pay for Major Car Repair, According to AAA Survey

Hello fellow consumers, it’s been a couple of weeks since our last blog posting. Needless to say, there has been a lot of news but not much about insurance. Seeing as how this is an insurance blog I did not see the connection in placing my political views in this format, even though you already know what they are. Instead of taking a political route, I decided to pull an article from www.insurancenewsnet.com on personal auto insurance and how 25% of our population could not afford out-of-pocket expenses for an auto accident. I chose this article because I myself have an open auto claim. It’s not a bad claim, no one was hurt and the repairs are minimal. When I read this article it was apparent I am in the same boat as many Americans, I could not pay this claim out-of-pocket and still cover all of my other expenses. I recently heard that 40% of our population is not carrying any sort of auto insurance either. Couple that with all of us being a little short on dough, that creates a lot more problems many of which I’m sure you already know. The article goes on to cite certain economic issues and mentions that most people are holding onto their older cars to decrease costs. I would like to address both parts because I feel they are both very important. Let’s take the idea that holding onto your older car will cost less. That’s not very well thought out, not only do older cars tend to breakdown more often. Most of the time they use more gas. On to economic trends, the atmosphere these days is deplorable, we all know this. We have a whole lot of reasons we can name for our expenses going through the roof, government idiocy, bad business practices, poor personal finance, the list goes on. More and more I find myself putting the blame elsewhere. I am placing it on us; the American public (myself included). When did we become the “Spicoli’s” of the world? Every time I look around it seems that people are more concerned with image and material than that which we held so dearly for many years; Liberty and Knowledge. There was a time when it was considered cool to be well-educated socially, economically, morally etc. I’m challenging everyone who reads this to go out and educate themselves, get involved with your community, Spend some time helping someone else. Find something, other than tv, that your passionate about. The Mad Hatter is no Holden Caufield nor am I calling Americans lazy, I’m just saying maybe it’s time to spend a little more energy making this place… better. Thanks Guys and Gals.

Hi everyone! This week’s article is one out of The Insurance Journal and it is polarizing. Basically, the government has funded a $161 million project to upgrade levees in the Mississippi river valley. At first look, this program is beneficial and we will undoubtfully help the citizens in this area. The thing most people don’t realize about FEMA (the federal flood program that funds this project) is that they start in the red every year and write off their losses at year end. They don’t pay for a nickel for the losses. They are either printed, borrowed or taxed to get back to black. The epitaph to this wonderful idea of theirs, is that they will give all of the homes in these flood zones a break for 5 years while the levees are upgraded. In the insurance industry no one writes free insurance mainly because it’s a good way to go broke. Essentially that is what the government is doing. Besides all of that, the exposures of this hazardous work is breathtaking not only to the citizens of these areas but to the nation as a whole. We are being set-up for failure and the government thinks it is doing us a favor; NO! In any pool of insurance you must pay a commensurate premium for the exposure. They are breaking a fundamental rule of insurance by approaching it this way. The funding needs to be there while the exposure is the most prevalent and then credit for premium will happen as exposure units decrease. Think of it this way; they are fixing the levee’s (rememer they have borrowed the money already and they are 161 million in the hole), then a flood happens (anywhere) the government will simply reach into their pocket again, right? No they have to go through appropriations commitee’s, lawsuits, congressional panels ad infinitum; all the while these people are basically left for dead. No thank you Mr. President! You must make sure the project is funded with REAL money before you start it. I don’t mind paying my fair share if it means that we don’t go broke. But, this is just one mad-hatters opinion. Please leave yours!!!

Federal Bill Offers Break for Properties in Certain Flood Zones

This article expresses an interest in safety regulation for golf carts. A lot of this raises issue in the insurance world on the liability side, which we all know can be the biggest losses for insurance companies. These golf cart losses have been few and far between, most of them have had alcohol or other factors attributed to them. However infrequent they are; there are other losses in this country everyday that are along the same lines as this accident. Many say that the manufacturers are responsible and others put the blame solely on operator error or passenger carelessness. I myself am torn between the families grief and the interests of my own industry. Should a company be suspect for an incident in which they put written warnings against such use on the instructions? Do the grieving families deserve compensation? If so, then from where? Enjoy!

Death in South Carolina Golf Cart Accident Raises Seat Belt Issue

Considering the difference between being visible through social media vs. email marketing.

By M. Hunt Calvert

If you are reading this, then you must already understand the difference between actively searching for something and being in the right place at the time. In my time as an agent in this business I have noticed many different ways that consumer’s find their next agent. I see the capability of each one and I am a fan of a couple. Just a little background about M. Hunt Calvert, my father started this agency back in ’91 with nothing more than a small office and a couple accounts to sustain a family and one employee (who, by the way, still works here). He was totally old school, I mean, walking door-to door and cold calls all day everyday, it worked….then.

The market (what I like to call the business pile) has drastically changed since my father first took his agents test in ’81 and also since we opened our doors in ’91.  By this I mean that so many avenues have opened and closed in the last twenty years that it takes a degree to keep up with all the twists and turns we make as a society. All of this boils down to “what angle do I want to take to make sure people are insured correctly?”  Do I take the subtle approach of social marketing and put my name in enough pots so that eventually someone who is actively looking for a new agent will see my name, or do I go on the prowl and snatch up every email and phone number I can get?  The answer to the question is a much debated topic; some say it’s a mix of the two. Others are on both sides of the fence.

I think there is an entirely different question to be asked of us. In the business pile, through our marketing and advertising efforts, how are we communicating to our consumers that we really care about their business/home or auto? In other words, how do I go from used car salesman to trusted colleague through our advertising lanes this day in age? Think about the last time you were “spammed”. Do you trust a company that bought your name and address from another company who also basically stole it? NO! But, what if they really do have something good to offer? Both have missed an opportunity to better their own lives. Without proficient social marketing tactics no one will ever see you. The best way to address my question is with a story of how I earned my last big account. I was searching the web for website’s of a prospect list I had just bought trying to get rid of the junk. I was not trying to beat anyone over the head with insurance and I wasn’t just looking around. Anyway, I came across a page that was under construction and said to contact an address to get pictures of the facility, so I did.  I got an email back asking me why I wanted the pictures, so I responded honestly and told the person that I had been searching the web for prospects and I needed to see if they qualified to receive a quote. I believe the next part is the crux of our issue. The email came back that he did not want to be spammed but also was not happy with his current carrier. Once again I had to be honest with the man, I told him that we were planning a mass emailing but if he did not want to be emailed I certainly would not include his address.  Then something happened, I was curious why he wasn’t happy and wondered if maybe I might be able to offer some advice without plugging my own interests. In my response I simply added in my conclusion that if he desired some help or advise I would make myself available to him.  I believe that at this point without thinking of myself or my wallet I was truly able to break the “salesman’s wall”. I went from car sales to trusted colleague out to help. I really felt great being able to straighten out this person’s problem and provide some relief. Just that little extra effort won me some business and certainly found a good friend in the process.

In conclusion, we as agents really need provide a value added service to our consumers now more than ever. Insurance is so important to our public and we need to respect our clients need for service and professionalism. I don’t think it’s what side you take in the debate but more of how you handle yourself while you are endeavoring. Being honest with consumers and taking the extra steps necessary to break the stereotype can have us all winning in a different way a lot more.

Anchor has long been awaiting the social platform to inform and dicuss with our public. Here it is!!