Is Florida Home Insurance Too Late to Get in Line For a Washington Bailout?

The financial crisis brings more shocking news every day. This week was no different as executives from General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler landed in Washington with their corporate jets to ask for their share of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.In a shameless display of arrogance and entitlement, leaders of what used to be “best in class” companies begged for billions of dollars with their tin cups outstretched in front of the US Congress. Before the Big Three ever arrived in Washington, billions had already been committed to AIG and some of the largest financial institutions in the country.During this financial meltdown we’re seeing something we never expected to see in our lives – broken promises from major corporations and government entities on a scale never considered possible. We’ve reached a point where even large companies and large states like Florida can’t meet their obligations using the bond markets.If you are a Florida home insurance consumer, your biggest asset is now at risk during the financial crisis – your Florida home.Can you name a more sacred promise than the one a home insurance company makes to you when it takes your money and agrees to insure your home?When you buy homeowners insurance in Florida the insurance company is promising you fast and fair payment of your claim. Florida insurance companies buy reinsurance to help them make good on this promise to you. Reinsurance is backup coverage that insurance companies buy to help protect themselves from big losses above certain levels.The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund was formed as a way to help stabilize the Florida home insurance market after Hurricane Andrew caused billions in damage to Florida in 1992. By offering reinsurance at affordable rates, the fund helped to make homeowners insurance available and affordable for many years.That all changed after the Florida hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 when Florida home insurance became overpriced and hard to find again.The Florida legislature responded to the Florida home insurance crisis by voting in 2007 to expand the reinsurance sold by the Cat Fund by $12 billion – raising its total risk to a total of $28 billion. Florida home insurance companies were required to purchase this additional reinsurance from the state and to pass along the savings realized on reinsurance to home owners.As a Florida homeowner, you didn’t get the rate reductions that this law was supposed to provide. You didn’t get the 24% average rate reductions that were predicted when the legislation passed. And to make things worse, the Florida Cat Fund took on an additional $12 billion in risk.Now the Florida Catastrophe Fund has told us that the frozen bond markets won’t be an acceptable source to raise the cash it needs to meet its commitments to the insurance companies after a major Florida hurricane. It recently estimated that it could pay out $13 billion over the next twelve months – That’s $15 billion less than the $28 billion it is on the hook to pay!What does all of this mean to you as a Florida home insurance consumer?You didn’t get the rate relief you expected and your state took on financial obligations that it has no hope of paying.You are at risk if Florida experiences a major hurricane in the next year. Once the losses of your Florida home insurance company exceed certain levels, your company will ask the Florida Cat Fund to reimburse them in order to pay your claim. Since the Florida Cat Fund is short on cash, you might have a long delay in getting your claim paid.The promise to pay your Florida home insurance claim has never been more at risk than it is today.Now that you know that the Florida Cat Fund can’t meet its obligations, let’s look at the idea of a National Hurricane Catastrophe Fund that some in Florida have been pushing in Washington for many years. This National Cat fund would offer an additional layer of loss protection above and beyond the obligations of the Florida Cat Fund.The theory is that a National Catastrophe Fund would be funded in part by insurance premiums paid by policyholders in states that are part of the fund. A National Cat Fund would be a separate fund that would earn interest and grow during the years when there aren’t any claims.Supporters claim that no taxpayer money would be needed to sustain a National Cat Fund. History tells us there would be storms so large that federal tax dollars would have to be used to cover major losses.And everyone knows that the federal government can’t keep its funds separate. Just ask someone in Washington to show you the billions that are supposed to be in the Social Security Trust Fund. You won’t be shown any cash – just a drawer full of T-Bills and IOU’s.Now that the Big Three Auto makers and other shameless Fortune 500 companies have beaten Florida to the punch in Washington, it is very unlikely that a National Hurricane Catastrophe Fund will pass anytime soon. Even President Elect Obama will shy away from any additional federal obligations as he faces all of the red ink in Washington today. So don’t look to the federal government to make good on the promise that was made to pay your Florida home insurance claim.Finally, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation has consistently reported that it doesn’t have anywhere near the money it needs to pay out the almost half a trillion dollars in hurricane exposure it after a major Florida hurricane.A large hurricane would mean that Citizens can’t pay even its primary obligations – those that it must pay even before losses reach levels where Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund reinsurance kicks in. And as a policyholder with Citizens, you are subject to paying higher special assessments after a major Florida hurricane than policyholders who have private homeowners insurance – special charges tacked on to your annual insurance bill.In this new brave world where even governments can’t keep their promises here are some steps you should take as a Florida home insurance consumer right now:Get a Florida wind inspection done and harden your home as much as possible.Avoid Citizens Insurance Florida if you can.Find a home insurance company that is strong financially and one that has spread its risk across both Florida and other states. Fewer policyholders will mean faster payment of your claim.Report your insurance claim the same day as the Florida hurricane. This will make it more likely that you will get paid before your insurance company looks to the Florida Cat fund for reimbursement.Last but not least. The fact that the Florida Cat Fund is short on money has not been lost on Florida home insurance companies. They are being charged for reinsurance by an entity that has publicly stated that it can’t meet its obligations. That means insurance companies are not getting what they paid for.You should expect Florida home insurance companies to try to buy more of their reinsurance in the private market and not from the State of Florida in 2009. And they will look to pass that cost through to you in the form of higher insurance rates. If they don’t get the rate increases they need, your Florida home insurance policy might be cancelled.As the Florida home insurance crisis continues, it has never been more important for you to stay on top of the Florida home insurance market for private insurance. You never know when you might have to find a new Florida home insurance carrier.

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Extended Role of Management Consultants

Over the recent years the idea of management consultants have changed dramatically in both, management consulting and in other professional services. Management consultants have started to rethink and redefine their business, widening and enhancing their service offerings, merging or establishing alliances with other consultants and professional service firms, and abandoning self-imposed restrictions on the sort of work they are prepared to undertake. These changes have been triggered by a number of factors, including the growing complexity and sophistication of doing business in national and inter- national environments, market deregulation and liberalization, new opportunities for innovative consulting, growing demand for integrated and “one-stop” professional services, competitive pressure coming from other professions and, above all, the advancement of information technologies and their rapid penetration into management and business processes. In using consulting and other professional services the clients are asking “what will add value to my business”. Rather than identifying needs, devising a solution and implementing a new and “tailor-made” system for every client, a consulting firm has a range of products that are offered to all clients (or categories of clients).Advice and know-how have turned into a commodity. The client can choose among standard offerings “off the shelf” – diagnostic instruments, change and project management programmes, training and self- development packages, production control systems, enterprise resource planning or customer relationship management systems, e-business or knowledge management software and so on.Commoditization of methods and systems is currently a feature of knowledge management and transfer. It responds to demands from clients, who want to get the best system, methodology or approach at an affordable price, within reasonable time limits, and with a guarantee of applicability and standard performance. This is what the commoditized professional services aim to provide. Professional service providers who have commoditized their knowledge enjoy an enormous business advantage – if the product is in demand and sells well. They can serve large numbers of clients. Instead of using experienced and highly competent consultants for each assignment, the consulting firm can develop standard procedures for delivering standard products, and hence use more junior and less experienced staff, and cut the price.In larger IT and management consulting firms, outsourcing has become the fastest-growing area of service and an indispensable source of stable and long- term income. This reflects the fact that the consulting firm may be better equipped to carry out certain activities, which it can perform more efficiently and economically than the client while keeping up to date with advances in the field. It also reflects new ways of doing business and managing knowledge, in which clients focus on their core business and use intellectual capital and financial resources in areas of their principal strength.Consulting in finance, including financing the enterprise and financial control of operations, also started developing rapidly. A number of the new management consultants had a background in accountancy and experience drawn from working with firms of public accountants. To meet their clients’ needs and to attract clients from new sectors of economic and social activity, management consultants have developed various strategies, creating and offering new special services, specializing in particular sectors or, on the contrary, providing broad comprehensive packages of services.In recent years consultants have stepped out of the traditional limits of the management field and deal with plant automation, communication systems, quality control, equipment design, software development, economic studies, environmental protection and the like if these are of interest to clients and can enhance a consultant’s competitive edge. In addition to improving service quality and offering new sorts of services, management consultants have become more dynamic and even aggressive in searching for new clients and trying to convince potential clients that they can offer a better service than others. This has brought about many developments in the advertising and marketing of consulting services.Many large consulting firms have sought to internationalize their operations in searching for new markets, adapting to the changes in the international economy, and taking advantage of the new opportunities for consulting in the developing countries. In large consulting firms, foreign operations may contribute 30-70 per cent of income. Great efforts have been made to increase the long-term benefits derived by clients from consulting assignments, by diversifying and perfecting the intervention methods applied at all stages of the consulting process. Many organizations private and public have become experts in using consultants. They have developed their own criteria and methods for selecting consultants, collaborating with them during assignments, monitoring their interventions, learning from their approach and evaluating results. Consultants have become indispensable advisers in major business decisions and transactions.

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Emergency and Security Management: A Career of a Different Kind

There is a whole field of career opportunities out there that most people don’t even realize exists. But it won’t be a secret for much longer.If you can keep a calm head in an emergency, are organized and detail-oriented, and can manage relationships, then a career in emergency management and security might be perfect for you.When an emergency of some kind happens, the people we usually see are the first responders – police, firefighters and paramedics. However, when a large event occurs, like a gas spill, a train derailment, a terrorist attack, a forest fire or an earthquake, there is a whole team of people running the show from behind the scenes. And that’s where the emergency management profession comes in.This field is one that very few people know about, so competition for jobs is low, and salaries tend to be high. The demand for qualified people to fill these positions is growing in an economy where many career fields are suffering. Why?Population increases mean more and more people are living in areas where a disaster is likely to occur – like near forest fire, flood and earthquake hazard zones. Climate change is also affecting the incidence of and locations of emergencies and is bringing the importance of emergency planning and response to light. We’re living in an age where domestic and international security concerns are high. And, there is a growing recognition of the need to implement solid business continuity practices to ensure businesses can weather emergencies and disasters.Who Are Emergency Managers? For many years, first responders were the same people who fulfilled behind-the-scenes roles as emergency managers. They juggled both the responsibilities of emergency management and their main job duties. They didn’t necessarily have specific training in the field, and because emergency management duties were “off the side of the desk,” they didn’t get the attention they deserved.Today, emergency and disaster response departments are discovering the advantages of appointing positions to strictly oversee the emergency management function – someone whose attention isn’t divided. This opens up a whole field of careers for people who aren’t first responders, but who would thrive in a job where they are just as instrumental in saving lives, preserving our environment, and protecting people and assets from disaster.What Are Some of the Jobs in this Field? Depending on your training, experience and education, there are several career paths you can take. The most common job titles include:

Emergency Program Coordinator
Disaster Planning Specialist
Director of Safety and Security
Manager of Security
Business Continuity Specialist
Risk Management SpecialistEmergency Program Coordinator: One career path is as an or emergency program coordinator for your local city or municipality. In this role, you will put together and update the community’s emergency plan, which will include an analysis of hazards and risks in the area, and strategies for prevention, mitigation, response and recovery. In layman’s terms, the plan will answer the following questions:

What types of emergencies is my community vulnerable to? Are we located in an earthquake zone? Do many trains carrying hazardous materials run through our community? If it rains too much, are we vulnerable to mud slides?
What strategies can we put in place to prevent emergencies from taking place altogether – or mitigate their effects if they do happen? Should we restrict building permits in mud slide areas? Clear dead trees in forest fire zones? Outline clear disaster response routes?
How will the community manage the response if an emergency does occur? Where will we set up an Emergency Operations Centre (a location from which an emergency can be managed)? Who should be involved – do we need representatives from first response agencies, hydro, forestry, First Nations? How will they be trained and know how to work together?
Where will the general public go if an emergency happens? Do we have a team of trained Emergency Social Services workers to ensure that receptions centres are set up and staffed?
When the emergency is over, how will the community recover? Are many people, animals and businesses displaced? Has infrastructure, such as roads, hydro or railways been disrupted? Will we need to liaise with non-profit disaster organizations for recovery assistance?You will also be responsible for setting up and maintaining the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), developing relationships with individuals, businesses, and organizations in your community, and managing training and exercise programs. For example, during planning for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, the City of Vancouver ran several exercises simulating emergency events that could happen. These exercises helped identify gaps in training or skills that could then be remedied prior to the event.Where Else Are Emergency Program Coordinators Employed? Today, you will find emergency management specialist positions in many organizations, including colleges, universities, hospitals, healthcare organizations, utility companies and private businesses like shopping centres and hotels. In these organizations the duties are similar – you still create the emergency management plan, develop relationships and arrange training and exercise programs – but the difference is that your main audience is not the residents of your community, but the staff, students, customers or tenants at your organization. Your job is to make sure plans are in place to protect your people and property before, during and after an emergency.An additional function in these positions is business continuity. Often, you will create a business continuity plan to ensure that key organizational functions can continue if a disaster occurs and you will be able to get business processes back up and running as soon as possible after an incident. For example, you may make plans to duplicate and store important computer data, such as student, customer or accounting records, at a secure second location – so if there is a fire, flood or other incident, you will still be able to access files. This role has become so important in recent years that some organizations hire specific business continuity specialist positions.Specialist Positions: In addition to the positions mentioned above, many larger communities employ specialized positions such as:

Emergency Social Services Director
Emergency Social Services Volunteer Coordinator
Search and Rescue Manager
Training Specialist
Exercise Design CoordinatorAdditionally, many international not-for-profit organizations assist in helping communities respond to and recover from emergencies and disasters. These organizations are numerous, ranging from well-known associations such as the Red Cross and St. John’s Ambulance to lesser known organizations focused on a specific area, such as large animal disaster response. Many rewarding career opportunities are available with these organizations, such as:

Disaster Planning Assistant
Disaster Relief Coordinator
Volunteer CoordinatorThe Merging Fields of Emergency Management and Security So where does security come in? Historically, the fields of emergency management and security were separate. The emergency manager created plans around natural disasters and emergencies, whereas the security manager or director of safety and security would be responsible for keeping the campus, workplace or community safe from criminal activity. However, over the last 10 years, these fields have been merging, especially with private organizations, such as universities, hospitals, and utility and transportation companies.Today, many organizations have created departments that combine these functions. In other organizations the roles are combined.In addition to the emergency management functions described above, in these combined roles you can be expected to be in charge of or coordinate standard security functions, such as:

Perimeter and building security systems and procedures
Managing security guards
Risk analysis and management
Investigating criminal and other incidents and liaising with law enforcementHow Much Will I Make? Depending on your educational background and experience, you can expect to make between $36,000 and $110,000 annually. Recent high level job postings have reached as high as $140,000. Here are some typical salary ranges:

Emergency program assistant with a private organization, university, hospital or government agency: $36,000 to $45,000 annually.
Emergency coordinator, training coordinator, exercise design coordinator or business continuity specialist with a university, healthcare organization, private business, government agency or community: $45,000 to $65,000 annually.
Emergency program manager with a small to medium-sized community: $60,000 to $90,000 annually.
Manager of Security and Emergency Management for a university, hospital, utility company, or casino: $65,000 to $100,000 annually.
Director of Emergency Management for a large city: $90,000 to $140,000 annually.What Kind of Education Do I Need? For emergency coordinator or training specialist roles, you should have a minimum of a Certificate in Emergency Management. You may also consider a specialist certificate in an area such as exercise design. For progressive roles, leadership roles or roles combining emergency management, business continuity and security functions, an academic diploma or bachelor degree is recommended.Where Can I Study? Emergency management and security programs are now offered at select universities and colleges across Canada. You can choose from certificate level programs that train you in basic skills, and diploma and bachelor degree programs, that can provide you with a strong base of management and leadership skills in addition to studies in emergency planning and business continuity. Some programs at the bachelor level even combine studies in emergency and security management to meet the job requirements of these merging fields. Some programs are offered on-site, while others are offered completely online.What Kind of Experience Do I Need? To qualify for an entry level position, often you will need the minimum of a certificate and some experience in communication, program coordination, volunteer coordination, office procedures or customer service. Here are some entry level roles that you can often take on a part-time basis, and will provide a valuable foundation in some basic functions:

Customer Service Representative
Communications Assistant
Volunteer Coordinator
Office Assistant
Security GuardA great way to increase your chances of landing that first job is to volunteer with an organization involved in public safety or disaster response. Some organizations to consider are:

Emergency Social Services
Search and Rescue
St. John’s Ambulance
The Red Cross
The Disaster Animal Response TeamA Career of a Different Kind If you’re outgoing, organized and enjoy analyzing information, putting plans together, developing relationships and making a difference, then a career in emergency management might be right for you. To explore this career option in more detail, visit the emergency management careers page, where you will find recent job postings.

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