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Environmental, Social, and Government (ESG) requirements are popping up everywhere.  Do you know the expectations of all the various stakeholders that impact your business?  These include project owners, general contractors, investors, lenders, insurance companies, employees, and governmental agencies.  Each comes with risk and opportunities.  Have you starting capitalizing on steps that you may have already taken?  We are thrilled to join with the Kraus-Anderson Construction Build Me Up podcast to bring you an enlightening discussion on construction environmental risk and insurance.  Mallory Thomas, a partner with Baker Tilly's risk management practice in Minneapolis joins us to discuss these emerging risk issues and ways to position your business for success; both internally and externally.  

For years, homeowners and personal automobile insurance has been an afterthought for most owners of homes and vehicles.  The policies reviewed annually without much fanfare or thought.  It seems that all of a sudden we have had a seismic shift in awareness and challenges.  2023 saw the largest number of billion dollar claim events and these were concentrated not only on the coasts but also in the interior of the country.  They ranged from flood, wind, fire, hail, and tornado activity.  This has resulted in significant profitability challenges for personal lines insurance carriers and changes in what is available in the market and what is expected of insurance purchasers.  The carriers all assume they will continue to be on the front line of these increased natural disasters and don't see a likelihood of a slow down in this activity in the coming years.  Matt Akin, leader of the personal lines business at Kraus-Anderson Insurance Agency joins us this month to shed some light on the current challenges and some possible solutions.  

Construction projects are like a big family tree with lots of lines between owners, developers, architects, engineers, general contractors, and subcontractors.  There may be nothing more tedious and more important than reviewing and understanding your contracts and agreements and how they interact will all of those other lines on the family tree.  It is rare to find experts who are able to demystify contract language while also providing practical advice that can minimize your project risks.  Our guests this month are able to do both.  We are thrilled to share the insights of Liz Poeschl of Meagher & Geer and Johnna Wangensteen of Kraus-Anderson Insurance, and we hope you can find a few ideas to benefit your risk management practices.  

Companies that learn how to anticipate a crisis can turn that event into a positive business experience and those that are unprepared may never recover.  Evaluating and imagining low frequency/high severity risks that could materialize in a five to ten year horizon allows for planning and the ability to practice various scenarios.  Crisis management through risk governance processes will add uncalculatable value to any business, large or small.  Hart Brown, the CEO of Future Point of View, joins us this month to dive into the benefits of pre-planning for a crisis and the steps required.  Hart has managed countless assessments, developed response plans, and led businesses through some of the most complex crises.  The list of potential risks continues to grow.  Are you ready for a fire, flood, shooting, cyber incident, reputational attack, or the next pandemic?  Have you considered the pending downfall of electronic encryption or the impact of an international socio-political shift?  Join us as we learn about ways to plan for those infrequent, unexpected, and severe risk events.    

A chance encounter with a table of free donuts started Scott Anderson down an actuarial career path unknown to him at the time.  Since then, Scott has become one of the best at explaining why your claim history may not really be your final claim history and how insurance companies use claim history to predict the financial future.  Do you wonder why your insurance rates increase while your historical claims seem so low?  Did you know that the profitability of your insuyrance company may be lower than that of your own busines?  Can you improve your financial planning with a good understanding of the tools that insurance companies use to predict what your claims are likely to be in future years?  Scott spent the first part of his career in senior actuarial roles with several insurance companies, helping to evaluate history and predict future claim activity.  More recently, he leads Actuarial Advisors, Inc., a successful consulting company that assists many businesses to better understand their own loss experience and plan for the financial impacts.  Join us this month as we demystify the world of claim history, rate making, and insurance finance.  

Minnesota is heading toward legalization of recreational marijuana by the end of May.  The changing landscape has already impacted, and will continue to impact employer drug testing programs.  Legalization does not change the fact that employers still very much have the ability to require a drug free workplace, however, the tools and techniques to ensure compliance are changing and getting more complex.  There may be differences between pre-employment and post-employment testing.  There will be differences between various employee types including safety sensitive jobs and individuals that are subject to federal Department of Transportation regulations.  There will continue to be differences between state regulations.  Traditional drug testing will still play an important role, and will be augmented by improved impairment recognition training, advancements in testing techniques, extreme clarity in company policy, and very consistent policy implementation.  Many employers have already adjusted to the changing landscape in order to continue to maintain a drug free workplace.  Judy Praska, owner of Fastest Labs of Bloomington joins us this month to add some perspective to this very challenging and complex issue.