Academy Journal

Notes on Public Adjusters

I recently had a conversation about public adjusters. Here’s the short version of that conversation. What is a public adjuster? Would you recommend someone use a public adjuster? That made me think that we could bring some of that conversation …

How Much Insurance is Enough?

Have you ever thought about how much insurance a person should buy? If you ask the agent, she might tell you that they should buy as much as they can afford. If you ask the underwriter, he might tell you …

What is the Underwriter Thinking?

Got a really interesting question this week. The essence of it is that the agent has a customer with a homeowners’ policy. The company is planning to renew coverage with the house on Actual Cash Value (ACV), rather than Replacement …

We Could Try to Make Insurance Easier to Read

Insurance policies are hard to read, and I don’t think that they necessarily need to be so. Some would say that we need to keep policy language intact because the language that is used in many policies has come through …

Winning the Race to the Bottom

“The car’s just not worth anything.” “The state only requires…” “I don’t owe on it, so I don’t have to have it.” I’ve heard these sentences recently when talking to people about their insurance. Yes. I talk about insurance when …

3 Steps in Maximizing ROI on Learning

One of the questions that we get more often than I’m comfortable with is, “Do you provide continuing education credit?” The answer, for better or worse, is no, we don’t. You may disagree with our decision, but that’s what we …

4 Thoughts About THREE

I’ve held off commenting very much on THREE, the new three-page commercial policy by Berkshire Hathaway. It’s time for a few of my thoughts. It has only been filed in a limited number of states. So far, THREE has been …

A Quick First Look at Florida’s New AOB Bill

I have a new hobby. It compliments one of my other hobbies, reading insurance policies. What is it? I’ve started reading legislation. What a thrill to print (yes, print) 16 pages of legislation. The numbered lines, the underscores and strikethroughs. …

Guest Post: Reading Forms: Is It Really Necessary?

We are grateful for friend of the Academy, Chris Burand, President of Burand & Associates, LLC for this timely article. Thanks, Chris! Now, let’s get to his question: Is it really necessary to read forms? Of course not! Lots of …

4 Insights From the Conference I Just Attended

I’m at the AAIS Main Event this week and I’ve learned a lot. I go to a lot of different events for a lot of different reasons. I go to this event in part to network and meet people that …

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