Third Quarter 2005   Volume 12 Number 2

Awards, accomplishments and success stories

Underwriting discipline pays: Kate Wilkinson, property claims manager, has been managing Penn-America’s response to hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. With a dedicated team of claims adjusters and two temporary new staff members to handle the demand, Kate, in typically modest fashion, underplays her team’s extraordinary responsiveness during these mass tragedies: “I am paying what I owe and doing it as quickly as possible. You really have to give credit to our underwriters. They must be doing something right. Katrina hit three states and I have fewer than 190 claims.” Kate’s team deserves some credit, too: all of the Katrina claims were inspected (as of late October) and all of them will be paid and closed within about 60 days from Katrina’s landfall.

Closing the books on these three massive storms has not been easy because, as Kate notes, “It was swimming in mud down there in the area affected by Katrina. It’s still hard to get around. Phone service is sporadic. For simple reasons, these claims were logistically difficult. For example, there were no street signs anywhere. You just couldn’t find people.” Handling the claims related to Rita has been a smoother process since communication in the affected areas was not as severely disrupted. With Katrina and Rita claims under control, parts of the Cat Team were in place in Southern Florida, two days after Wilma hit the area.

Penn-America’s clear underwriting guidelines proved their effectiveness even in the hardest-hit areas. In New Orleans, Kate’s team handled only nine claims related to Katrina.  In six counties where Rita passed through, there were fewer than 70 policies in-force.  All in all, in a four-state area, Penn-America received (as of October 20) a total of fewer than 310 claims related to both storms.

A Port After the Storm:  Alexandria-based Southern General Agency lost its New Orleans office during Hurricane Katrina. Barry Mitchell, president, has done everything he can to help soften the human impact of the disaster: the office’s seven employees all lost their homes. Four of the families, one with ten members, moved to a temporary office in Alexandria where the entire staff pitched in with furniture, clothing and toys to help the families be comfortable in the temporary housing that the agency arranged and paid for. Charlotte Smith, executive vice president, noted: “Barry really went to bat, even arranging for a mobile home when there were no more rental properties available. I cannot imagine what it must be like for them. But we’re doing everything we can to see that they get on their way to recovery.” On the business side, Charlotte reports that the agency’s disaster plan worked to limit loss of valuable records. The plan included removing the main computer server and taking all paper records to a rented, two-story warehouse.

Western Region Seminar: More than 40 agency representatives, from 21 cities, representing 23 Penn-America agencies gathered in San Francisco on October 7 and 8. Speakers included guest Laura Danoff, who did a presentation on avoiding costly mistakes for the general agent; David Carr, special investigator in Penn-America’s SIU, who presented useful fraud-prevention tools; Jay Hanuscin in the Underwriting Audit Department, who introduced the Department and a host of useful Web sites to aid underwriting; and John Curry, who reviewed company-wide results. Other activities included bay cruises, visits to the aquarium and Alcatraz and dinner at San Francisco landmark, Julius’s Castle. Since the event was held during Fleet Week, the attendees also enjoyed performances of the famed Blue Angels.