Boots on the Street

Ahren Hohenwarter

Identifying and Analyzing Risk

In a previous entry we discussed the 6 steps of both the ERM and TRM process; the first two are Identifying and Analyzing your organization’s risk.
As part of the risk management process, we look to confirm that your risk management approach supports your overall business objectives. As a business owner, what keeps you up at night? If that concern occurred, how would your income or cash flow be affected if there were unforeseen expenses or a shutdown of your operations?
Discussing the qualitative aspects of your business provides the important details needed to design a program that addresses your exposures while producing a ROI. Exposures are both qualitative and quantitative...

Own It or Rent It?

By Tim Finster

This is not a phrase normally associated with the purchase of insurance. Usually it’s reserved for discussions about real estate, cars or office equipment. But it’s possible with insurance too. The major corporations have done it for many years.

Who was the first? I don’t know, but it might have been Kaiser. Henry J. Kaiser was the founder of the Kaiser Industrial Complex. In 1939, he opened a cement plant in Cupertino, CA. A creek ran through his facility, Permanente Creek. Henry decided to do something to get control of his employee’s health care expenses. He created a program to better serve the health care needs of his employees, reducing his annual costs and providing better health care for his people...

Does a Group Health Captive Save You Up to 15%?

From Joel Geddes, Jr.

At ERMIS, we operate a Captive consulting practice with extensive experience regarding this question.

Actually, there are several other benefits in addition to at least a typical 15% long term cost savings . You can also become partially self insured, regulated by ERISA — not Obamacare! — design your own benefits and coverages and engender a healthier workforce with corresponding lower long-term health costs, worker’s compensation costs and increased productivity.

However, without some specific background on your company such as number of employees, historical claims experience etc., it’s difficult to simply give you a yes/no answer if a Captive approach would be a fit for you...

Boots on the Street

Ahren Hohenwarter

Enterprise Risk Management Vs. Traditional Risk Management – The Same… But Different

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and Traditional Risk Management (TRM) share many similarities.  Both ERM and TRM are methods of making, implementing, and monitoring decisions that minimize the adverse effects of risk on an organization and they both utilize the six steps of the Risk Management Process:

1.   Identify risk within your organization.
2.   Analyze those risks.
3.   Examine the feasibility of risk management techniques.
4.   Select the appropriate risk management techniques.
5.   Implement selected risk management techniques.
6.   Monitor the results of the program and revise accordingly.

Where ERM and TRM differ is in their scope...

What Does A First-Time Enterprise Risk

Management Candidate Think About?

By Tim Finster, Vice Chairman

I get this question all of the time.  What is Enterprise Risk Management?  How does someone know if they would benefit from it?  Why would I be interested in Risk Management?

The answers are really very simple.  Consider the following.

As a consumer, have you ever wondered if you left money on the table as soon as your agent finished renewing your commercial insurance policies?  Want to know how much that could be?

Have you ever wondered why your rates are going up when you haven’t had any claims activity?  Who’s getting the extra money?

Have you ever considered what it would mean financially to remove yourself from the general insurance buying pool and buy your coverage base...