Every year, OneGroup holds our Day of Giving, dedicated to giving back to all of our OneGroup communities. Each OneGroup office closes for a portion of a day, allowing employees to volunteer for an organization in their local community. On Thursday, June 9th, many of our offices celebrated this year’s Day of Giving in their communities.
From helping to pack bags of food for children in need and supporting our furry friends at local shelters to giving back to non-profit theater communities, supporting the zoo’s mission of connecting people to the natural world, and more, our OneGroup impact has been vast!
Thank you to all who have participated and made this year’s Day of Giving a success!
This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.
Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.
In Conversation with Winthrop Thurlow, Executive Director of MedTech
By Pierre Morrisseau
This article is comprised of excerpts from an interview that I conducted with Win Thurlow, Executive Director of MedTech, in which we discussed the development of a working community that spans the entirety of New York State and some of the concepts that surround this idea.
On developing the “I-90 Corridor” —
PIERRE: I’d love for you to talk about the concept of community in the metro area and developing the “I-90 Corridor.” Tell us about your take on the opportunity to grow the Corridor, and what it means to you?
WIN: Let me start by giving you some context… For the past few years, Brookings Institute has been studying the geography of the technology industry in the US and conceptualizing how to spread the tech economy more evenly around the country. Competitive advantage in the tech space is dependent upon proximity to other people in that same field, and historically, high achievers have landed in places like Silicon Valley, Boston, and the research triangle. These areas have succeeded because they’ve aggregated so many like-minded individuals, but placing this entire industry in so few places is unsustainable and will likely lead to burnout.
At that point, it is not only difficult for folks to get into the market itself, but the surrounding areas become less attractive for the next generation of workers to live in due to rising expenses. Why would you move to Boston, as awesome as Boston may be, and spend $2,500/month on a studio when you could live someplace else much easier and cheaper?
Pictured: Win Thurlow & Pierre Morrisseau
So Brookings says, here’s what we should do… We need to create some targeted locations around the country where we would encourage increased federal spending in terms of research and development dollars, perhaps look at regulatory relief in certain areas, in order to lower the barriers to entry in this field. The overarching idea is to encourage the growth of the tech economy.
Over the last 50 years, when looking at economic development policy in other industries, particularly at the federal level, funding is typically allocated to a wide span of cities throughout the country. But Brookings says that this approach won’t work in tech because it will dilute the value. What they suggest, instead, is to pick ten metro regions in the country and only target these ten. If that works, eventually target ten more. They suggested picking locations based on such metrics as: proximity to academic research institutions, higher than average levels of education for the workforce, abundant natural resources, access to power, etc. Through this process of elimination, Brookings honed in on 35 metropolitan regions in the country and suggested that the program pick ten beneficiaries from that list.
Now, this is the part that excited me… Of the 35 cities that Brookings selected, New York State held four of them: Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. It is highly unlikely that anyone would choose all of these locations as four of the ten, but this brings us back to the “I-90 Corridor” idea… Under that umbrella, these cities wouldn’t be marked as four metropolitan regions, but as ONE metropolitan region. And the reality is, you can drive from Albany to Buffalo in half a day. In many ways, that’s easier than getting from Montauk to Manhattan.
“We should always imagine the world as a dynamic and changing place. We can’t rely on things always being the same, and that mindset presents a great opportunity for regeneration and advancement.”
WIN THURLOW
So what do all of these places have in common? They are all along the Route 90 corridor, which, as you may know, follows the Erie Canal. And it was the Erie Canal that transformed this country from an agrarian east coast economy to the colossus that it became. We can, and should, harness that same energy today. And what I think about when I’m traveling up and down the thruway is how this corridor has access at various points to so many resources – from universities to manufacturing facilities to an array of diverse industries.
And when we consider the history of manufacturing in CNY, there is an embedded institutional memory of innovation in this space, as well as the capacity and facilities to rekindle this work. Whether its physical assets in Schenectady or materials in Rochester, we have access to so much.
PIERRE: We need to establish a mindset around the concept of one continuous corridor, which will require a paradigm shift and a willingness to think long-term in order to utilize the infrastructure that already exists. Through that, these smaller cities will become more desirable places to live because they already have the resources to support a larger population. These changes can’t happen all at once, but over time they will.
WIN: If each center grows their corridor capacity, the infrastructure that we are able to support will not only bring more people to CNY, but will inspire students to stay after college. And further, it behooves an institution like Syracuse University, for example, to strengthen the local workforce because that will increase the desirability of living in a place like Syracuse, thus strengthening the case for better talent to sign on as faculty at the university.
PIERRE: I love that concept. There seems to be a lot of opportunity if we’re willing to think longer term and collaborate to make this happen. What are your thoughts on how we can move this forward?
WIN: By taking CNY’s history of manufacturing innovation and combining it with our concentration of academic research institutions, not to mention the ease of access to places like Boston and NYC, there’s no reason that we couldn’t be considered one large metro area, working together and doing great things.
On connection in an age of technology —
WIN: I am fascinated by the popularity of remote work, especially among younger generations. Maybe I’m showing my age, but it’s the loss of (and willingness to lose) in-person mentorship and professional development that is tough to understand.
PIERRE: You can emulate the concept of togetherness through technology, but connectedness gets lost over time when you don’t have access to the little moments; the drive-by conversations, getting to the office early for a chat before jumping into your day – there isn’t currently an easy way to do that virtually. On the flip side, I like to joke that people enjoyed my “digital containment” because suddenly they knew where to find me – and it also opened the doors to conversation with people all around the world. There are two obviously contrasting sides to this, but finding the balance is key.
On the consistency of change —
PIERRE: Let’s talk about Kodak and the importance of thinking long-term. Kodak, titan of the film photography industry, actually invented digital photography! But many people don’t know that because they never shifted from film to digital. At the time, Kodak was able to make money without doing anything different by licensing their digital technology to everyone else – never anticipating that the need for film and chemicals would run out. If they had looked ahead they could have remained at the top of their industry, but the day that film was deemed irrelevant was the day that Kodak filed for bankruptcy. If they had thought of digital photography as a means to putting cameras in more consumers’ hands, they might’ve let their chemical resources run out, taken the hit early on, and rebuilt their infrastructure around the digital technology that they had created.
WIN: Growing up in Cortland we used to look at Rochester and think, Rochester is bulletproof. Rochester has Eastman Kodak. We will always need film. Rochester has Xerox. We will always need paper copies. You could not have convinced me that the world would exist in any way other than that. But the reality is, the digital revolution came and we no longer needed film and we no longer needed paper copies. That could be a very depressing story, but it doesn’t have to be. It can serve as a reminder that we should always imagine the world as a dynamic and changing place. We can’t rely on things always being the same, and that mindset presents a great opportunity for regeneration and advancement.
Sisyphus Balances the Boulder at the Top by Michael Crawford, The New Yorker
On leveraging the brainpower around us —
PIERRE: How can we bring people together and magnify the affect of their individual work?
WIN: My all time favorite New Yorker cartoon is of Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill, balancing it at the top, wiping his hands and saying “well, that’s done” …because we all know that the work is never done. There will always be a boulder to push and there will always be a workload to balance. What we need to do a better job of is understanding that we don’t have to push or balance the boulder by ourselves. From where we sit right now, there are so many resources and intelligent minds just up the road, but it’s on us to reach out and connect with them.
PIERRE: And in order to do that, the leaders need to take up this charge. If we take action, that will lead to more action, prompting a continuous, iterative system. The more we foster these relationships, the more others will follow suit.
WIN: That’s exactly right. To bring this full circle, everything that we’ve discussed here aligns with the development of the I-90 Corridor – if we can get other leaders in New York State on board with growing the opportunities around us, there is no end to the successes that we could achieve together.
Follow Pierre on LinkedIn to keep up on his conversations with other local thought leaders!
This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.
Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.
By Doris Habayeb Courgi, CSP, CPSI and Paula DeStefano, CPRoMgrSU
OSHA has a new enforcement initiative. Currently, there is no standard that address heat-related illness & injury hazards in the workplace. OSHA relies on the General Duty Clause Section 5(a)(1) of the Federal Register.
The current initiative has been established at developing a heat-related illness standard. Issued October 2021 is a Published Advanced Notice of Rulemaking named Heat Injury & Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings. The proposed rulemaking is geared towards obtaining information about the extent and nature of hazardous heat in the workplace and effective controls to prevent heat-related injury & illness.
From the proposed rulemaking the National Emphasis Program (NEP) was placed into effect on April 8, 2022. NEP is an OSHA effort meant to gather information on addressing heat hazards in the workplace in the development of a heat hazards standard. Under the NEP, OSHA will prioritize on-site inspections. Employers will be responsible to comply with the requirements of the NEP – implement safety measures to prevent heat-related illness in the workplace/worksite.
OSHA on-site inspections can be triggered by any of the following:
When OSHA is conducting other, non-heat-related investigations, they can/will open a heat-related inspection into any hazardous heat conditions observed (plain view) or reported.
When heat index is expected to be 80 degrees Fahrenheit or more (heat priority days), OSHA will inquire about heat-related hazard prevention programs during these (unprogrammed) inspections.
When National Weather Service (NWS) has announced a heat warning or advisory for a local area, OSHA will use neutral, objective criteria to select employers for pre-planned inspections in high-risk industries in that area—including manufacturing, foundries, warehousing, farming, waste collection, residential & commercial construction, among many others.
What Employers Should Expect
NEP includes 70 high-risk industries (construction & non-construction)
List compiled from BLS reports
OSHA Severe Injury Reports from employer
General Duty Clause violations & hazard alert letters issued
Past industries subjected to heat inspections
Employer should be aware of high heat hazard work days – Heat Priority Days
Employer to evaluate worksite condition, take steps to decrease heat-related illness among workers
Be aware of workers required to engage in intense or continuous physical exertion, or who are exposed to high temperatures and humidity or direct sunlight, may be susceptible to heat-related illness
OSHA will request review of 300 & 300A logs for past 3 years and current year
OSHA to interview workers for heat illness symptoms: headache, dizziness, dehydration…
OSHA to review employer’s heat illness prevention program.
Consider developing & implementing program if not already established
Consider if the program addresses hydration, areas of rest/shade, scheduled breaks, employee acclimatization, training, other relevant policies & programs such as PPE, Ventilation, First Aid & Medical Services, Recordkeeping, Sanitation
Conduct a JHA to determine potential exposures to heat illness
Documentation of relevant weather & temperature conditions such as heat index, NWS issued heat alerts, types of heat source (direct sunlight, radiant heat sources…) level of and duration to exposure….
NEP Outreach – During heat priority days OSHA will increase compliance outreach
OSHA has resources to help employers and employees stay safe when working in high-temperature and high-humidity
Doris Habayeb Courgi is a senior risk management consultant at OneGroup. She can be reached at 315-413-4459 or DHCourgi@OneGroup.com.
Paula DeStefano is a risk management consultant at OneGroup. She can be reached at 315-413-4441 or PDeStefano@OneGroup.com.
Material provided for informational purposes only. If you are in need of compliance assistance related to heat-related injury or illness prevention and compliance programs feel free to reach out to OneGroup Risk Management Team at (315) 457-180 or 1-800-268-1830
This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.
Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.
A Health Savings Account (HSA) is one of the most versatile, tax-favored accounts under the IRS code. Many participants use their funds as they incur expenses, while others better utilize their savings potential and tax breaks.
Below are three ways to maximize the potential of your HSA:
Pay by other means and reimburse yourself later
Qualified medical expenses incurred after the account is open are eligible for reimbursement at any time. You can pay now, using cash or with a credit card (added bonus of points, travel miles, or cash back), let the funds grow over time, and reimburse yourself at any point in the future. This strategy allows you to invest your HSA funds to grow tax-free for the future.
HSA as a retirement account
At age 65, HSA funds can be withdrawn for any purpose and taxed at your ordinary income rate, similar to a 401(k), with no penalty. Of course, you can still use your HSA for qualified medical expenses, including Medicare premiums, and the funds are tax-free. A strong argument can be made that the HSA is the most important account to max out, even before a 401(k), as long as you have contributed enough to earn your employer match.
Jumpstart an HSA for your adult dependents
Your HSA funds can only be used for the qualified medical expenses of your tax dependents. However, adult dependents still on your plan (assuming it’s a qualified HDHP), and no longer considered tax dependents, can open their own HSA. Since these dependents are covered by a family plan, they can contribute up to the annual family amount. This provides the opportunity for over $7,000 per year of tax-favored funds into the account, with the possibility of 40 years of growth potential.
An HSA is your personal account. You are responsible for the usage and record keeping, not your employer. It is important to maintain a record of receipts, EOBs, and provider invoices to avoid potential penalty or tax consequences for misuse.
Contact us today with additional questions on how to better utilize your Health Savings Account.
Nathan Bradley is a senior consultant at OneGroup. He can be reached at 315-413-4496 or NBradley@OneGroup.com
This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.
Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.
Increasing your organization’s cyber insurability.
By Dennis Ast, CPCU, CCIC
The cyber insurance market continues to change. As the market has become more challenging, cyber insurers are more selective about who they choose to insure.
Some of the key changes that cyber insurance carriers are making include:
Lower coverage limits
Increased retentions
Higher premiums
Coinsurance on some coverages
New endorsements that further limit coverage
Insurers are requiring organizations to fill out full applications and ransomware supplementals, complete cyber assessments to search for vulnerabilities and add subjectivities to quotes to minimize their exposure to risk. These requirements are driven by an increase in number of cyber-attacks, which is resulting in higher claim payments being made by cyber carriers. Cyber insurers are looking for clients that have developed strong cyber hygiene and resiliency. If you or your company haven’t stayed current with your cyber security, obtaining cyber insurance may be a challenge.
Cyber carriers want to offer their optimum terms to those who have best-in-class cyber security programs. There are steps that organizations can take to increase their insurability.
Below are the steps you can take to increase your insurability:
Start the renewal process four to six months prior to the renewal date
Obtain a cyber vulnerability assessment and resolve all vulnerabilities
Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – especially on email and remote access
Secure Remote Desktop Protocols (RDP)
Implement Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
Enable email security
Keep all Devices and Applications patched and up to date
Encrypt all sensitive data
Remove/replace end of life or end of support software
Have back-ups – regular, encrypted, air-gaped & tested
Develop and practice a cyber incident response plan
By increasing your cyber resiliency and hygiene, cyber carriers are more likely to offer better renewal terms to your organization. OneGroup can help you to build a strong cyber program that will increase your organization’s chances of obtaining cyber coverage.
Dennis Ast is a senior account executive and cyber risk specialist at OneGroup. He can be reached at 716-572-2410 or DAst@OneGroup.com.
This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.
Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.
OneGroup supports McMahon Ryan Child Advocacy Center during National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
April is National Child Abuse Prevention month. Throughout the month, OneGroup supported the McMahon Ryan Child Advocacy Center, an organization that has been dedicated to ending child abuse in our Central New York community since 1999. They have assisted in the healing of countless children’s lives, and they see more than 1,000 victims of child abuse each year.
We kicked off the month by joining some remarkable community members at the Go Blue 4 Kids Breakfast. We were left in awe of the strength and perseverance shown by keynote speaker Michelle Knight, best-selling author and Cleveland Kidnapping survivor. Her story reminded us of the reason it is so important to support organizations that actively protect our community’s children.
OneGroup spread some positivity by planting 100 pinwheels on our front lawn. They spun through snow, wind, sun, and rain! Every day, these small symbols reminded us that all children deserve a happy and bright childhood. The pinwheels standing their ground throughout our unpredictable and harsh weather seemed to serve as a metaphor of strength.
On April 24th, the sun began to shine and some members of our OneGroup team laced up their sneakers and participated in the Step Up 4 Kids Run.
As the month comes to a close, we’re reminded that organizations such as McMahon Ryan require support year-round, not just during the month of April. Learn more about the work that McMahon Ryan does in our community here.
This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.
Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.
Construction is a tough business. The work is tough. The people are tough. The competition is tough.
When considering risk management in construction, it can feel like a challenge to that toughness. In reality, you have worked hard to build your business. Your efforts provide for your family and for the families of your workers. Protecting your business is part of that effort. Risk and its outcome presents a real and substantial threat to the business you’ve built.
In the risk management field, we look at threats to an organization’s ability to thrive; further, we’re looking at potentials that threaten an organization’s ability to even survive. Whether the threat is a lawsuit stemming from New York State’s Labor Law, workers’ compensation costs, the cost of putting trucks on the road, or even OSHA fines – the dollars can be big and the impact severe. In the day-to-day grind of bidding and building, investing the time and effort required to manage risks often takes a back seat, but that’s when bad things happen.
So, you may be wondering… Whose responsibility is it to manage the risks faced by your company every day, and how would that be accomplished? What does a solid risk management program look like? I’ve been in the risk management, safety, and loss control field for over 40 years and I can tell you that protecting your company from risk has very little to do with a traditional safety program. I’ve walked into many a contractor’s office or job trailer and been handed the site safety plan. I’ll look it over and then ask the Super., “Can we go out and see how you’re really doing things?” Most of the time, what I see is very different from what I read. Safety (or risk management) is not a program, or a binder; it’s not a tool box talk, or computer-based training, or even an inspection. Construction Risk Management is based on the decisions that you, and every one of your employees, make every minute of every day that you are onsite. Safety is someone securing a ladder, checking a ground, or using the right tool for the job. Each of those things stem from a good decision made by the employee. Your risk management challenge is giving them the information to make the decision, and holding them accountable to making it.
Managing construction risks depend on the decision you make in writing your contracts (and signing those of others). Managing risk fails when your site supervisor walks past the shaky scaffold, or the subcontractor failing to use their PPE, or allowing the employee to operate that piece of equipment without knowing if they were capable. Managing construction risk is also highly dependent on how you, your supervisors, and your site managers respond to an incident, whether it’s an injury, or a near miss, and whether it involves your employee or a subcontractor.
Now, let’s talk about the three key elements of managing construction risks:
Preventing of incidents
Responding to incidents
Managing incident outcomes
Prevention
Needless to say, an incident that doesn’t happen doesn’t cost the organization time or money. However, in order to be confident that the risk of an incident has been minimized, we have to be confident that our employees are making the right decisions every day (i.e. wearing their PPE, erecting the scaffold securely, only accepting well-written contracts… the list goes on). How do you do that? Remember when I said that risk management isn’t a safety program? It’s not. That’s just a book. Prevention of incidents is dependent on every one of your employees knowing what is expected of them, and using that knowledge to make decisions every day. Minimizing incidents on a construction site requires that each of your employees apply the safety concepts they’ve been taught. It also relies on your managers and supervisors holding every one of your employees accountable to those concepts every day. So no, safety is not a program or a book; it is a system of defining expectations of conditions and behaviors, and then holding people accountable to the application of those principles. The written program is just a way to make sure everyone is using the same concepts.
Response
The next critical piece of managing risks in construction is how you (or your management team) respond to an incident. Again, we’re talking about any incident – whether an injured worker, a vehicle accident, or a subcontractor incident. The process of responding to the event can mean the difference between a minor disruption and a major claim.
The critical factors in responding to incidents are:
taking care of people
communicating with whomever needs to be communicated with
identifying the real cause of the incident
taking steps to prevent it from ever happening again (if possible)
Number one, taking care of the person is a responsibility, not an annoyance. Getting an injured person the medical care they need quickly and efficiently provides you with a host of benefits, including getting the person healed quickly and preserving a good employee. Failure to take care of an injured worker or subcontractor can easily result in long disabilities and lawsuits, not to mention low morale and turnover.
Fast and complete communication within your company and with the insurance carrier is the second critical response factor. Incidents in the field need to be communicated to management and administration quickly so that response can be coordinated. Involving your claim-person immediately upon notice of an incident can help establish appropriate care and preserves the evidence needed should a claim or lawsuit come about.
Managing Incident Outcomes
Claims and lawsuits are common outcomes of accidents within construction operations. Workers’ compensation claims run the gamut from minor incidents with no lost time to debilitating and even fatal incidents. Your ability to manage the claim process depends on the information you gather throughout the claim and the relationship you have with your adjuster.
When an incident occurs, that information should immediately be communicated to your office person who manages such situations. An incident report with all appropriate information about the injured worker, their injuries, treatment, etc. needs to be given to your office so that it can be provided to your claim professional. This allows that person to work with you to determine the best course of action in managing the claim outcome. Your office staff should be actively involved with your claim professionals to provide updated information and to continue managing the claim to achieve its most favorable outcome.
Regular claim review meetings, or periodic claim discussions regarding the status of an injured worker or a liability suit, provide you with an opportunity to contribute information, as well as get information on where the claim is going and what the outcome may be.
In addition to the initial claim report (to get the carrier involved), identifying the true or root cause of the claim, and implementing controls to prevent reoccurrence, is critical both from the standpoint of managing your OSHA exposure to fines and managing the long-term risk to your company. From the OSHA standpoint you’ve seen the new fine structure. No one can afford citations, let alone “willful citations.” Very recently, a roofing contractor was fined over $1M in response to an employee falling from a roof that resulted in a fatality (and that doesn’t even contemplate the labor law case that’s sure to arise).
This devastating accident proves the importance of establishing practices to prevent such incidents. Failing to eliminate or minimize the possibility of reoccurrence of an incident doesn’t make sense. Sometimes closing the barn door after the horse ran out is important, because there are more horses in the barn. It is in the organization’s best interest to dig into the events and decisions surrounding an incident in order to find and prevent those things from happening again.
All in all, risk management in the construction industry is not “having” a safety program. Success in managing risk is about using the tools (i.e. a safety program, training, consistence, accountability) to foster the right decisions among your employees; every hour of every day that they’re on your job site.
For more information please contact Paul Coderre, Vice President of Risk Management Services at PCoderre@OneGroup.com.
This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.
Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.
OneGroup joins with IVMF to Help “Vetpreneurs” with New $5 Million Federal Grant.
OneGroup was selected by Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families to support their Community Navigator Pilot Program, funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The competitive grant program, established as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, will assist small businesses hit hard by the pandemic. OneGroup will specifically work with the IVMF in support of the veteran community.
IVMF was named as one of only eight Tier 1 grantees, selected as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s $100 million Community Navigator Pilot Program. The $5 million grant will support veteran and military spouse businesses with entrepreneurship education, small business technical assistance, loan preparation, access to capital/capital readiness, corporate and federal contracting, and networking.
“This is truly exciting for IVMF and OneGroup. Over the next two years, this program has the potential to impact thousands of veterans and families we serve,” says Michael Haynie, Ph.D., Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives & Innovation, Barnes Professor of Entrepreneurship and IVMF Executive Director. “It is also wonderful recognition of IVMF’s and OneGroup’s partnership to provide veteran entrepreneurship education programs. Joining with a network of local providers like OneGroup allows for individual attention that understands the nuance of operating in the OneGroup community. This broadens our national impact, having developed a vast network of alumni and partners who are dedicated to meeting the unique needs of veterans and military-connected families,” says Haynie.
OneGroup will be able to draw on IVMF’s best practices delivering cost free entrepreneurship programs like Boots to Business (B2B), Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-WISE), and the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV), among others, that have assisted more than 75,000 participants.
During the pandemic, the IVMF also launched two new virtual entrepreneurship programs, EBV Spark and R.I.S.E. (Resilience, Innovate, Sustain, Evaluate), to help veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs adapt their businesses to the current operating environment.
In applying for the grant, the IVMF noted strong partnerships with businesses that can help veterans achieve success. In addition to OneGroup, the IVMF will be coordinating the work with key partners, including Texas A&M, Florida State University, St. Joseph’s University, Dog Tag Bakery and StreetShares, as well as others. Whether through direct technical support, training or networking, the entrepreneurs assisted by IVMF programs have demonstrated resilience and success; 92% are still operating their business today.
Haynie says IVMF research highlights how veterans face an array of barriers in attempting to launch businesses, including a fragmented ecosystem, capital readiness, difficulty navigating resources, certification process hurdles and lack of assistance from medical and disability service providers. He believes the new pilot program offers a unique solution that provides a navigation and support mechanism to strengthen the ecosystem, nurture entrepreneurial aspirations and sustain growth and success.
“The goal is for military-connected clients to receive efficient, timely, and comprehensive access to the services and resources they need, where they are and when they need them in their entrepreneurial journey,” says Haynie.
This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.
Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.
Look at the picture in this article. At first glance, it’s just a group of friends enjoying the sunshine and each other’s company – lovely, right? But if you look a bit closer, you’ll notice that the people standing in the foreground are precariously close to the edge of a stone step. If one of them were to trip or fall down those steps, this gathering would quickly become much less enjoyable, especially if the guest is seriously injured.
These are the kinds of situations that homeowners must be aware of when establishing insurance policies for their home. Standard policies have limits that would barely cover the cost of a lawsuit, injury settlement, or devastating accident. And this doesn’t just apply to accidents at home! Auto, RV, and watercraft accidents can also become very costly if you don’t have enough coverage established… this is where umbrella insurance comes in.
Umbrella insurance policies are added layers of coverage. They enhance your existing policies and may act as primary coverage in areas excluded on your standard policies. These policies cover the cost of injuries sustained by others in accidents involving you or your property. These may include auto accidents, boating accidents, trips/falls at your home, etc. They cover court and attorney fees if you are sued and can extend to the other members of your household, as well. For example, if your teenager is found responsible for a major car accident or hosts a party with underage drinking when you aren’t home, liability resulting from potential injury and damages would be responded to by this coverage. Costs for legal defense and payment of monetary awards if you are found responsible is the purpose of this policy.
Umbrella policies can cover you from $1 million up to $20 million, or more! And it’s not as expensive as you may think – a $1 million policy can cost as little as $150-$300 per year, and each additional million is typically less.
Want to speak with an expert to see if an umbrella policy is right for you? Our team is ready to answer your questions. Give us a call at 800-268-1830.
Janice Kophen is Vice President, Personal Insurance Operations at OneGroup. She can be reached at 315-558-6777 or JKophen@OneGroup.com.
This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.
Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.
As you may know, the nation is facing historic levels of inflation, supply chain issues, and increased costs of services and materials. These factors have caused a ripple effect in the insurance industry, leading to increasing premiums on home and auto policies.
We understand that this rise in costs may cause you concern or questions, so we wanted to provide you with background knowledge on why this is happening and how we can help!
Homeowners Insurance
Worsening weather conditions lead to an increase in damage to homes, which then leads to a need for building materials and skilled laborers to perform repairs. Unfortunately, both of these things are in short supply, causing prices to go up overall.
From steel products to lumber, the costs of building materials are exponentially higher. Many of our nation’s manufacturers reside outside of the United States, which, in the face of a global pandemic, has led to shortages and delayed imports.
The home-building industry faces a massive loss of skilled workers, driving up labor costs.
Auto Insurance
As with construction materials, the essential parts of a vehicle (microchips, windows, plastics, etc.) are in short supply, making repairs and replacements more costly.
With a lack of supplies to manufacture new vehicles, the cost of used vehicles has skyrocketed, and the scarcity of new vehicles has led to an increase in those prices, as well.
Severe auto accidents are on the rise, leading to an increase in claims. With more claims comes more of a need for repairs, causing carriers to increase premiums to offset some of the inflated costs.
We at OneGroup have the advantage of offering you many options to consider for insurance, as we are an independent agency and we focus on providing the best value for your specific needs. These conditions are industrywide and may impact you in some way. However, there are many options to handle rising premiums, including higher deductibles, policy bundling, electronic fund transfers, defensive driving courses, and other loss mitigation credits. Our OneGroup representatives are available to help review your coverages and options. Finally, I want you to know that we appreciate the trust you place in us and we will work together to support you during these difficult market conditions.
Kathleen Gorman is senior vice president of personal insurance at OneGroup. She can be reached at 315-558-6772 or KGorman@OneGroup.com.
This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.
Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.
