Articles by Chris Burand

Burand is the founder and owner of Burand & Associates LLC based in Pueblo, Colo. Phone: 719-485-3868. E-mail: chris@burand-associates.com.

Positioning with Companies as the Market Changes

A huge amount of press has been devoted to how important price is to insurance buyers – and it clearly is. But this is not specific to insurance. Price is a key factor in almost all buying decisions, excluding medical …

Burand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #33

E&S Binding Limits. Extremely few, if any, retail agencies have any binding authority whatsoever with their E&S brokers. This is such a simple E&O tip that most readers probably see it as a complete waste of blog space. My field …

Burand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #32

AOR/BOR Procedures. If the current agent is so good, why is the insured moving their policy? AOR/BOR selling strategies have increased in popularity exponentially over the last decade. Some sales consultants and producers also like the strategy because they think …

Cutting Corners

Some inside knowledge and a lot of experience strongly suggests that many agencies and brokers are cutting processing corners. I am not writing about immaterial corners. I am writing about them cutting large, material corners. Some have cropped the corners …

Burand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #31

Record Retention. It’s not as simple as everyone thinks. Significant and dangerous myths exist relative to this increasingly important topic. The first myth is that “records” means all records, not just paper records. Second, the solution is not to keep …

Burand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #30

Felony Background Checks. An important step in hiring people. If an employee has a felony conviction and the agency has not obtained the proper waiver from their state’s insurance department, the agency may be violating the Violent Crimes Act. Some …

Burand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #29

Flood Insurance. Who Ever Said Mortgage Companies Know Everything About Flood Insurance? In agency after agency I visit, flood insurance is usually only offered to people if their mortgage company requires it. De facto, this means the agency is accepting …

Keeping Up With the Joneses

“So baby, let’s sell your diamond ring Buy some boots and faded jeans and go away This coat and tie is choking me In your high society you cry all day We’ve been so busy keepin’ up with the Jones …

Burand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #28

Job Descriptions. A simple solution to minimizing E&O exposures. One of the most significant E&O exposures is literally a “he said, she said” issue. Producers think a CSR will do something and CSRs think the producer is doing it. The …

Burand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #27

Agency Catastrophe Plans. How to keep a catastrophe from becoming an even bigger catastrophe. I don’t know who said it, but they correctly concluded that the best E&O audit is a natural catastrophe because so many clients have claims and …