I had the privilege of speaking at both the Hardwood Manufacturers Association at their 2016 National Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Wood Products Manufacturing Association at their 2016 Annual Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.

The wood manufacturing industry has been facing substantially increasing insurance premiums due to a combination of multiple large, catastrophic claims and a significant reduction in the number of insurance companies willing to provide insurance policies to them.  Many of the members expressed to me that they had seen their premiums double or triple despite the fact they may have never had a claim.  With the members being crushed by their insurance costs, members were asked for a clear way to help reduce their premiums since obtaining insurance quotes was not really working for them.

 
As competition between insurance companies had been significantly reduced, the members needed to have a plan as to how to achieve results and go beyond just trying to get quotes.  After speaking with several members in preparation of the workshop, the members wanted to have a better an understanding as to how insurance companies price their insurance policies, a better understanding of the insurance system, but ultimately, they wanted to know how to make their organization more attractive to the remaining few insurance companies so that they could earn better rates and slash their premiums.

The Hardwood Conference workshop was the basis, or inspiration, of my latest book, the Laws 10 of Insurance Attraction, which is an expanded compilation of everything touched on in that workshop as well as many, many ideas and concepts that there was not enough time to address.

The Wood Products Conference workshop was focused on helping members to understand what happens after a catastrophe, and why so many of their fellow members have not been able to reopen following a disaster, and despite the fact that they had insurance!  We went through the process that Ken Clifton of Clifton Custom Furniture Industries experienced before and after their April 4th, 2014 devastating fire that destroyed their entire business.  We explored how they were the only 1 of the 5 WPMA members to reopen following that level of a catastrophe in the past 4 years. Odds are that over 50% of businesses will either not reopen or will close within 3 years of reopening is the basis of my upcoming book, Insured to Fail, which a preview is included in the Laws of Insurance Attraction. Read more and watch the video in Disaster Survivors.