This is the placing you first podcast. I'm Dan Wentz and this podcast features news and insights from CRCs fast knowledge base of 2000 plus associates who write an excess of $8 billion in premium annually and we're giving you insider access to what's happening in our company and the types of insurance we place on this edition of the podcast.
All of our lines of coverage, all of our practice groups are working very hard to navigate our way through these issues that are way more questions than there are answers and daily we are trying to put the tools together to help our people do this navigation.
This is the placing you first podcast.
Coronavirus has upended business as usual across the country and now more than ever CRCs clients are depending on us to help them navigate through these difficult times before, during and after. The pandemic CRC group is placing you first and today we're going to hear about some of the things our company is doing to help our clients.
Today, we're joined by Brennan Paris , director of carrier distribution, Bob green and Bob casualty practice leader, Mike Robeson, the exec pro practice leader, Paul Martin, property practice leader. And finally Neil Kessler , the chief operating officer of CRC group. Welcome to the podcast. How are you guys doing today? Let's start with Brennan Paris Brennan . You help CRC group with our carrier relationships. And I bet right now you're a very busy guy.
How our CRC groups carrier relationships benefiting our insureds during this tough time.
Yeah, the first part of that, I guess I can speak for all of us. I mean it's a busy time for us and uh, kudos to you Dan and the team. You've done a great job getting content out there, so thanks for all your hard work as well. Um, yeah, I think, you know, I think everybody on this call can relate to it .
Our insurance, the insurance industry is, is a theme of it is, is built on relationships and it sounds like this where we can lean on those relationships in order to find solutions for our, our insurance. Um, and it's a unusual time that we find ourselves in and I think we're leading the way in that regard and we've got a great team of people that engage with our carrier partners , uh, daily. Um, how we are currently.
And then I know everybody on this phone call here as well as all our broker communities have tremendous relationships with the carriers we do business with. And that pays oftentimes like ,
can you explain a little bit about how CRC group shares our collective intelligence internally about carriers? Yeah , that's
a great point. And I'll tell you this. And joining the firm early on, I could tell that there was a very team and collaborative atmosphere here at CRC. And uh , right now that's showcasing itself maybe more than ever. Um, in the sense of us sharing our knowledge and expertise with one another in order to come up with solutions for some unusual issues that may , may be popping up in the industry right now.
One thing we did early on in order to, to make sure that our folks were, were aware of everything going on really in real time was develop a landing spot on our intranet that we could house all the carrier bulletins and memos that were coming out. And as, as you can imagine, the first few weeks , um , and really even still to this day , uh , they're coming in fast and furiously. So having a central spot that our brokers and their teams can go to to say up to date with the most current info.
Um , and then we made it very easy to navigate in . You can search by product discipline , uh, so you can go to pro professional property casually to find the latest info as well as even search by our carrier . So if there's a particular question when the carrier that you're dealing with, you can go right to that landing page and be able to find out what's going on.
Um , the second thing we did in order to do this was , uh , worked with a lot of the folks on this call as well as others to develop a coverage consideration document that we could use for each product vertical. Um, it's allowing our folks to be able to have a consistent and uniform approach in , in, in going to our carriers on some unusual situations and needs that we may find ourselves.
And, and just as we've done with our ready system and building out , um, standardized submission templates, we think that these coverage consideration documents that are gonna allow our folks that come to our carrier partners in a more uniform and consistent manner that's hopefully leading to more efficient underwriting results , um, in working with our carrier partners.
So , uh, we're hoping that's going to be helpful in , in making sure everybody's aware of what they need to be talking to their clients in order to protect the insurance.
How is CRC navigating this Corona virus environment with our carriers?
Yeah. Well, I think that kind of dovetails off of question one. I mean we've got great relationships with, with all our carrier partners and uh, it allows us to be able to be in constant communication within.
One thing we have asked our carriers to do is notify us on quotes that have new exclusionary or endorsement language that has been added to them , um, coming out of coven 19 , uh, that way we don't want to search for them or find that language in there and most have responded very positively to that.
Uh, the other thing we're doing is , uh , talk and we're being proactive in that sense and encouraging our brokers to be able to ask if there's any in confirm, is there any new changes in the policy language in there? It's the best way we can, we'll look out for our insurance in this time and making sure that the policy is intended as it was , uh , when we quoted it and us bound the account . So we're trying to be proactive in that nature as hell.
Great. And let's turn to casualty. Thank you very much, Brian . Appreciate it. Let's turn to casualty and Bob green and Bob , uh , Bob from a casualty perspective, how is CRC responding to coven 19.
Thanks very much Dan and , and uh, thanks for having me on today. I will tell you that all our lines of coverage, all of our practice groups are working very hard to navigate our way through these issues. Uh, there are way more questions than there are answers and a daily, we are trying to put tools together to help our people do this navigation. There's a lot of things that we've done in casualty. I'll just cite a few examples today.
For example, you know, construction projects around the country are coming to , uh , many of them are coming to halt because of what's going on. And uh , we're having our people seek discounted pricing for project and or wrap policies at a voluntarily or involuntarily suspended work at the site. Many of them will have very light operations going on such as maintenance and security.
But the actual construction work has stopped and we're still , we're getting carriers to, to um , reduce pricing and or , uh, work with us to make sure that coverage is in force , not only during the , the slowdown or stoppage but after coverage resumed. Cause when there's a resumption of work, we ask the carriers to put a resumption of coverage endorsement automatically on the policy. The problem with coverage is that it actually goes retroactive after a project might finish.
And if coverage stop somewhere in the middle, then you might have a gap in the coverage. So we want, we're being really careful about doing that. Another thing we've done is we're developing or are in the midst of putting together a checklist for repurposed companies to help them analyze their new exposures. Everybody knows that when you are changing what you do as a company, what you did before is not maybe what you're doing now.
And when you're doing something different, it presents a whole new array of issues from an insurance coverage standpoint. So we're working to help our clients understand what those new coverage issues might be and going to the insurance companies to help negotiate different or better coverage.
Okay. Thanks Bob. Appreciate the update. Let's turn to property now. Paul Martin, who leads our property practice. Paul, what can you tell us about how CRC is responding in the property world on the property side?
In a lot of, a lot of things sooner what uh , Bob was just saying and what Brennan was saying, things that we're trying to make sure everybody's aware of. The changes in the marketplace, we're making sure they're aware of.
We are getting special , uh , endorsements from carriers to be aware of that, to make sure that they're checking those quotes more, that they know that there's been changes on own new quotes or quotes that are out there that haven't been bound yet to make sure that they know what's happening with those things.
But kind of taking the , uh, the building of builders risk side, that's one of the things that we've talked a lot about too is in a property policy of the cessation of works clause where builders risk. And what we've tried to work with there with the carriers is to make sure, first of all that they're aware of that and that most of those guys are , most of the underwriters were very willing to work with us. They're all trying to make concessions everywhere they can.
The biggest thing they are , it's just making sure that we give them information about the project that we tell them that the protection is still in place, that that everything is still going to be going on just as it was before. When the project continues from a property standpoint, the exposure doesn't change. So we can't, we can't really get any reductions in premium because of less exposure.
But what we have been asking carers to do is depending on how long this we have, the shutdown , what can they extend their policies to cover that additional timeframe that it may take to be able to , uh , complete the project. So far, nobody has been willing to give us a blanket response on that. They're all pretty much saying it's going to be a case by case basis. They're going to be working with us as much as they can.
Uh, so I think they're , they're all going to give and take there as much as they can, you know, of course. So a cessation of works on builder's risks. It's going to be similar to you have a vacancy clause or an occupancy clause own on a standard property policy. Kind of the same thing there. We've gone out to the carers and we've asked them to give us a response on that. Are they gonna are they going to give us some, some leniency in that? Are they going to allow that?
Because most of the standard property policies have a 60 day allowance anyway. A property is not considered to be vacant until it's been until it's been unoccupied or vacant for 60 days. Now though, is a property considered to be vacant? Most carriers will say they don't consider the property to be vacant just because they're , the building is shut down now because of , of the COBIT 19 , uh , the built, most of the buildings still have some occupancy.
So it doesn't really fall within that definition that the building is going to be vacant.
Okay. Thank you Paul. Appreciate that. Turning to the exec pro world executive professional insurance. Mike Robeson is our leader there. And Mike, can you give us an update on how CRC is responding with professional?
Yeah, I think it's much like Bob and Paul had mentioned and Brendan earlier, it's all about awareness and what we've done in the professional executive group is a had been, Brendan was involved in this. Uh, we have been putting on Countrywide conference calls. Everybody jumps on , uh , usually it's a 15 to 20 minute update of what's going on in the industry, what particular problems are popping up. And it's really about awareness on what to look out for.
What are we seeing popping up on the policies. Some markets in, in, in what Brendan had mentioned earlier is , uh, be cataloging , uh, all of the responses from the marketplaces and putting them in a place where people can go back to them. But this is an update as to carry your a, B, and C, they're doing this on all renewals, carrier X, Y, and Z. They're being more case to case by case.
So we're making our , um, uh, our , uh, brokers across the country aware of what's going on so they can address that. And we've had people step up from all over the country. It's not just one or two people , uh, in leadership across the country. It's, it's everybody, when they're finding out something, they're posting it online. They're , they're sending out , uh , w , uh, CRC worldwide emails.
Uh , so the awareness is, is, is, is really been impressive from a , from a standpoint of all of CRC and within peg . Um, from that standpoint, we're also making our agents aware , uh, the challenges that we're facing right now. You know, kind of the top three in the employment practices liability, we're worried about having layoff exclusions.
You know, when people are getting let go from the covert 19 and the policies are coming up for renewal, we're really being careful to avoid layoff exclusions on the policies. Um, from the DNO perspective, we want to avoid bankruptcy or credit or exclusions because of the financial difficulty on a lot of these small businesses. And then from a cyber standpoint, again, catalog is a lot of people working from home.
Well, what happens if you were , um, working from a personal cell phone or a personal iPad? Does your cyber policies extend to that? So we reached out to all of our carriers. We've gotten most of that coverage negotiated and just about every policy that we write, but we're reaching out to make sure that it's there , um , and informing our agents that, Hey, this is this, this is covered. Um, the last thing I would say is informing our agents to get in the renewal information early.
This is uncharted waters, right? So, so we're trying to get the information in early so we can , uh, have time to maneuver. If we've got a renewal and it's not going well , um , we can at least go out to market. But it's taking time because a lot of these underwriters are overrun and the response time is slowing down, which, which is understandable. But I think that's where in Brendan had touched on this earlier, our relationships with our carriers. That's where CRC can really shine.
Uh , we are a big presence in the marketplace. We've got the best brokers across the country and we can get people to call us back to maybe some other scans .
Okay. Thanks Mike for the exec pro update. You've heard from all of our practices and how they're responding. Also corporately we've got Neil Kessler on the phone, chief operating officer of CRC group. What are some steps, Neil , that CRC has taken corporately to address coven 19
well, I'm sure that all of our agency and listeners can understand the patchwork of state issues that are popping up with regards to payment moratoriums or other issues that uh , States are enacting all across the country. They know we're seeing them pop up almost every couple of days. Every week. Seems like a new twist out there. So, you know, we are carefully tracking all of those things. You know , we have a whole section of our intranet devoted to it.
We've made some changes in our workflow and processing, you know, staying on top of receivables, what accounts we not get paid on. Going back to our agents, having conversations about those, why are we not getting paid? How do we be sure that , uh , how do we be sure that we're doing everything we can to help businesses during these difficult times with regards to kind of their cashflow.
So , um, that's kind of what we're working on from a, from a corporate perspective as it relates to, you know, specifics around payment terms and some of the impacts of the States are having their , um, all of our folks are up to speed on most of these things. Going to get a question they can't handle. We have an internal team standing by to , uh, to help where needed. Um, so a lot of stuff going on there.
Um, the other thing I would point out, Dan, is that we've , uh, we've really spent a lot of time kind of helping our experts tell our agents and insurance about what's going on in the marketplace. And , uh, you know, what issues they need to be , uh , be aware of. You know, we've had , uh , articles about a lot of the topics that Paul and Bob and Mike and Brennan have talked about. You know, we've released article about cyber covers , we've released article about repurposing.
Um, you know, we've got a couple of articles coming out on the property side as well. A lot of great content out there about what's going on in the marketplace today. I'm real proud of the work we're doing through that as well.
And what about our employees? It's no doubt a tough time for them. And we like to say that CRC group is a great place to work. What have we done for our fellow teammates? Yeah,
well first of all, you know, I think were able to get , uh, the , the vast majority of our folks work on remote within less than a few days. You know, we have our , our thousands of employees crossed America, even our call center employees are all working at home , uh, taking calls at home. And that's no small feat, you know, and that's not something that , uh, you know, is easy to accomplish necessarily. But we got it done.
Uh, the, all the folks that do have to go to the office, we did have a few jobs where folks do have to go to the office. We've increased pay for employees that go to the office. Um , and uh, you know, really worked on kind of spreading those folks out. Again, I think we're down to less than less than 50 employees across the entire country that still go to the office at all in West and Martin working in the office full time.
Uh, they're just a , you know, going into to do mail scanning, that kind of stuff. Uh, that stuff as well for most of our employees. We've also given out bonuses related to coronavirus . So we gave $1,200 bonuses from CRC group to , to almost all of our employees. That has nothing to do with the government, just happens to be $1,200. Also. You know, we gave our bonuses out a few weeks ago and, and I think that went a long way to helping our employees during these difficult times.
Obviously we don't know if someone's spouse or children or a parent or who has , uh , has , uh , impacted by the situation here. So that's what we've done from an employee perspective. Also getting ready to do a pretty big internal charity drive we're going to be launching this week.
You know, I think it's going to go a long way to , uh, to helping , uh, helping out where we can, you know, it's a time when insurance should be delivering and , and , uh, we think that we are and um, you know, working hard for our agents to get the coverage that they need.
Thanks Neil. It's great to hear that CRC group is taking care of its own during this tough time and our clients, the insurance agents and everyone we work with. We appreciate you all for joining us today and the effort you've put into helping our clients, no doubt, an unprecedented time for insurance. And if you would like to keep up to date with all the latest information, you're in the right place. Subscribe to our podcast, our YouTube channel.
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