KMRD offers is its ability to act as the risk-management department for its middle- and
upper-middle-market customers—companies
not large enough to have their own full-time
risk-management staffs, but big enough to have
a wide variety of potentially catastrophic losses.
KMRD thoroughly assesses the operational risks and cost of risk that an organization faces, spending time inspecting the
workplace to gain a first-hand perspective
and to identify areas that could expose the
company to uninsured losses. The agency
then develops a cost-effective loss-control
plan using a combination of insurance, engineering, contractual risk-transfer provisions,
training and education.
“We understand that insurance is actually the most expensive way to transfer
risk,” McPoyle says.
With the client’s input, KMRD next
establishes a “Risk Management Initiatives
Worksheet” that documents mutually established loss-prevention goals (with completion dates) and specifies the parties
accountable for each step.
“We’ve allocated our resources so we can
get deep into the various details of our clients’
culture, risk appetite, exposures, operations
and unsolved issues,” McPoyle says, adding
that his team has the tools to help clients
with disaster-recovery planning, business-interruption analysis and mock OSHA audits.
“We do not just make recommendations;
we help [companies] accomplish things they
didn’t have time to address in the past,”
Dietzel says. “When these risk-management
initiatives become accomplishments, we
show the carriers an improved risk profile
which results in better pricing and coverage.”
PROPRIETARY TECHNOLOGY,
DATABASE GOLDMINE
In addition to its obsessive focus on risk
management, another edge that sets KMRD
apart is its use of technology.
Its proprietary management system,
KMRD XChange, is a full-powered collaboration tool that gives a client 24/7 access to its
insurance files, including loss information
and analysis reports, insurance-rating data,
contract reviews and correspondence files.
And because the firm believes that collaboration is key to a successful client/agency partnership, the files are not only accessible on a
“read only” basis—clients can also communicate changes by updating files themselves.
KMRD XChange also has numerous
self-service features, letting clients prepare
their own certificates of insurance and
print their own auto ID cards.
The firm’s document-management system enables it to consolidate all the forms-analysis projects it has ever done (more
than 5,500, with more added every day).
For example, it can search the system for
all “General Liability Coverage Summaries”
for various companies—enabling KMRD to
compare a new or renewing client’s rates,
as well as coverage enhancements and restrictions, with others in the database.
“The value of this process is that a
company receives the best coverage—not
only the best coverage in its industry, but
E continued on page 30
Case Study:
Claims Advocacy
APUBLICLY HELD company with offices throughout the U.S.accumulated more than $10 million in workers’ comp claims over
three years. The $3 million of reserves was a burden
on its balance sheet and earnings. Its claims-reporting processes and management systems were
not efficient enough to keep on top of the situation.
KMRD Partners redesigned the company’s
First 2 months $486,476
First 2 months 126
Month 3 82
Month 4 71
TOTAL 279
IMPACT: CLAIMS CLOSED
claims-reporting and management process,
including training employees in the company’s
48 offices. Each office had access to the company’s claims-reporting, accident-investigation
and return-to-work program forms and instructions via the internet utilizing KMRD Xchange.
KMRD also implemented a vendor-accountability program that ensured the client
received the services it deserved.
In just four months KMRD’s involvement
yielded $1,005,065 in reserve reductions
and 279 closed claims. NU
Case Study: Claim To Excellence
TRUST IS EARNED the old-fashioned way at KMRD Partners: without short- cuts. This core principle is exemplified
through the agency’s claims-resolution process, which is designed to eliminate surprises
and ease clients’ anxiety.
Case in point: Just two weeks after
acquiring KMRD coverage, a Pennsylvania
boarding school experienced a fire in its
maintenance and heating facility. Not only
was the fire the most severe the school had
ever experienced, but it occurred in chilly
mid-November.
KMRD immediately executed its
emergency-claims procedures: It alerted its
entire service team, sent two agency reps
to the school (with cameras for documenting damage) and sent one representative to
KMRD’s office to prepare for the next day’s
meeting with school administrators.
The school implemented its disaster-
recovery plan and immediately evacuated
students to the gymnasium, arranged for
temporary lodging in the gymnasium,
ordered temporary boilers so students could
return to their dormitories once the fire was
extinguished, and appointed (at KMRD’s
direction) one point of contact for the media.
