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It’s All About The People

by Natalie Zensius
Vice President of Marketing and Communications

I recently made the decision to leave a successful marketing communications consulting practice to join Ascension, full time. It wasn’t triggered by a desire or need for a career change. I was comfortable where I was, and doing what I loved.

Almost a decade’s experience, consulting with some of the top for-profit and nonprofit organizations in the country, has given me lots of challenge and variety. It’s made me a rapid problem solver and has had both an entrepreneurial and altruistic aspect to it. Why then, return to a “job,” and “limit” myself to just one industry?

For one thing, I’ve come to learn that the insurance career path offers myriad opportunities for smart professionals to combine their skills, talents, and interests and apply them in different ways to help serve a wide range of industries and clients. I still get to work on a variety of projects and industries. I’m focused on learning fast and solving the problems big and small that will help my team create world-class marketing products.

And, because what Richard Branson said.

Ascension is much more than just a job. It’s an organization that places great emphasis on culture and teams. It recruits people at the top of their game who highly prize respect, courtesy and relationships and then takes good care of them. As a consultant, I collaborated with the extremely talented professionals at this company. Now, it’s an awesome place to come to work every day–I get to grow and be challenged alongside those same client contacts I established strong relationships with and I’m personally excited to have joined a leadership team that values not just results, but all the team members who create them.

Ascension is continually looking for the best. We’re hiring. Visit our careers section, to learn more.

Natalie Zensius is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Ascension Insurance, Inc.

Ascension Insurance, Inc. is a premier insurance agency that offers superior risk management and benefits consulting services across the U.S. It is ranked within the top 50 largest agencies in the country, by revenue, with more than 450 employees in 35 locations nationwide. Ascension is a privately held corporation; together with its private-equity partners, Parthenon Capital and Century Capital Management, the company expects to continue its strong growth trajectory through additional acquisitions and organic growth.

Nuts to You (Not the Thieves!): A 360° Approach to Nut-Theft Risk Management

By Greg Merrill & Andy Sharpe

Nut theft is no joking matter—it’s a significant and growing threat to California’s $9 billion+ nut-tree business. With more than 30 nut-theft events in 2015 compared to just one in 2009 and four in 2014, what once warranted only local agricultural area media coverage now garners national mainstream attention. The 2015 price tag? $4.6 million.

That’s enough of a hit to a vital California industry to make the state’s legislature sit up and take notice. Last year, both houses passed a bill—in record time—to establish a statewide, cross-jurisdictional “Agricultural Cargo Theft Working Group.” This funding mechanism would have activated and aligned numerous law-enforcement agencies in helping target these crimes, but Governor Brown unexpectedly vetoed the legislation on September 21, 2016. Additional legislation is in the works to increase criminal penalties for thieves from a misdemeanor to a felony.

Tailoring Insurance Coverage

In the event they are the victim of nut theft, growers should have a strong post-loss solution. As such, it’s important they work with an agent or broker with specialized expertise to ensure they have properly structured insurance placements. The analysis starts with contract review: Who bears the risk, and are there “handoffs” along the path from tree to processor to final end-user? Only when these terms are understood can insurance coverage be negotiated and implemented.

Why Steal Nuts?

They’re valuable: A truckload of nuts, especially almonds, walnuts, and pistachios, can range from $100-500K.
They’re in demand: Touted health benefits and drought have strained supply.
They’re not easily traced: Unlike electronics, nuts don’t have serial numbers!
They vanish quickly: By the time a theft is discovered, the nuts are often already on a ship or broken into smaller loads and dispersed to out-of-state destinations.

The following approaches are available to growers and distributors:

  • Commercial-Package Policy
    There may be some coverage for Business Personal Property Stock in Transit under the basic policy form. However, this transit coverage tends to cover only a limited number of perils, so relying on this extension could lead to an uncovered loss.
  • Cargo/Transit Policy
    Once the shipment is in the correct trucking carrier’s control, ensure the trucking carriers’ cargo policies do not exclude theft for any reason other than employee dishonesty, which is excluded by most cargo policies (this can be easily covered with a separate crime policy). Many trucking cargo policies will exclude or limit theft coverage if the vehicle is unattended or if a trailer is dropped. Additionally, consider requiring a crime policy to cover theft by employees of the trucking carrier (including theft by the dispatcher and/or the driver).
  • Stock-Throughput Policy (STP)
    An STP offers growers and distributors the most comprehensive protection: Goods are covered at all times whether they’re being moved, processed, or stored. An STP can be an “all risk” type of insurance policy that provides seamless coverage from end to end and protects against perils including earthquakes, floods, and contamination.

 

Pre-Loss Risk Control

Growers and distributors should do everything possible on their end to prevent a theft situation, but orchard premises security (i.e., fencing, cameras, a guard service, etc.), is not an end-all-be-all solution. Nut theft is more commonly an act of fraud rather than an act of force.

Perpetrators are often part of organized crime groups, using sophisticated technologies to hack into trucking firms and utilize Department of Transportation databases. “Drivers” show up with high-quality, legitimate-looking paperwork. These forged documents incorporate burner phone numbers and enable thieves to steal shipping information and to quickly move the product to the black market stream of commerce. The thieves, and their loot, become immediately untraceable.

Growers/distributors can take any of the following precautions to prevent theft:

  • Develop a relationship with a few select trucking carriers with whom a consistent protocol can be established to confirm the correct drivers are picking up the loads.
  • Ensure your computer systems’ security is state-of-the-art, and ask carriers about their data integrity.
  • Call the carrier on the phone number provided during the originally contracted shipment and not the phone number given on any shipping documents (given their potential fraudulent nature). Require those firms to advise detailed information at least 24 hours in advance of pick up.
  • Get each driver’s license number and thumbprint.
  • Photograph both the driver and his/her truck.
  • Consider using radio-frequency trackers to ensure the loads end up where intended.

Because of the potential high profits and low risk, nut theft continues to be alluring for thieves and a challenge for growers/distributors. Taking a 360° risk-management approach—contract review, insurance program design, and pre-loss prevention can go a long way towards minimizing or, at best, avoiding exposure to loss.

Greg Merrill is Senior Vice President and Director of Crop Insurance Services at Ascension’s Pan American Insurance Agency, Inc. business unit. Greg has been helping agribusiness clients manage a wide range of operating risks for more than 13 years. Andy Sharpe is Regional Transportation Leader for Ascension’s Transure business unit. For more than 15 years, Andy has focused on transportation risk management and insurance, and is a renowned industry specialist.

Ascension Named to Insurance Business America 2016 Specialty Broker List

Business Insurance America has produced its first-ever compilation of agencies that have found their niche – and success. The list includes 148 agencies and brokers across the country who provide specialized services to insure their clients’ every need. Ascension is named top of the list for its specialty agribusiness services.

View the full list.

First Cayman PIC Vehicle to Add Further Cells

This article was first published by Captive Review, and written by Richard Cutcher.

 

California-based Ascension Insurance Services is expecting to add a second cell to its segregated portfolio company (SPC) in the Cayman Islands.

Captive Review reported in February 2015 AARIS Insurance Company SPC, owned by Ascension Insurance Services, had formed the jurisdiction’s first portfolio insurance company (PIC) – AGG 1 PIC.

Legislation enabling PICs, comparable to incorporated cell companies (ICCs) in Guernsey, came into effect in January 2015.

“We were up against a tight deadline because the renewals for the members were in February and the legislation was only passed the month before,” Paul Tamburri, west coast risk management practice leader at Ascension Insurance Services, told Captive Review.  “We had to get the fronting in place and ensure the carrier understood they were now contracting with the PIC rather than AARIS.”

When AGG 1 PIC was established it originally had 13 members.  That has since grown to 15.  All members are agriculture businesses with California or Arizona risks writing workers’ compensation.

The rush to find a solution for the original 13 members came about after the owners of a separate Bermuda segregated account company (SAC) changed hands and the clients in two of the three cells wanted to continue working with Ascension.

Tamburri said one of the reasons the SPC option was so attractive to Ascension was they saw the potential to offer a PIC solution to other groups of clients.

“We are already working on a segregated portfolio which we hope to get running by 1 April,” he added.  “That cell will be for another group of agricultural clients and is also for workers’ compensation.”

Ascension also works with the trucking industry and education institutions.  A large part of its client base is non-profits and the firm is considering setting up another vehicle especially for medical stop-loss.

“The SPC is a big opportunity for our company as a whole, and not just for this one PIC,” Tamburri said.

 

This article was first published by Captive Review, and written by Richard Cutcher. Captive Review was launched in 1999 and caters for the risk management and captive insurance communities.

Ascension Named to Insurance Business America’s Annual List of Elite Agencies

Insurance Business America’s second annual look at the country’s elite insurance agencies profiled agencies from coast to coast, both large and small – from agencies with hundreds of producers and many locations to agencies with just one office and only a few employees.

See the full list.