John Varner

Hurricane Harvey

September 5, 2017 by John Varner · Leave a Comment

As the Founder of Sovereign Risk Solutions and a 30+ year veteran of the insurance business, I am reaching out to you in this most incredible time of tragedy to let you know you have a strong friend and advocate in our company. Texas and Louisiana have been affected by many natural disasters over the past century, and Hurricane Harvey will certainly go down in the history books as one of the worst. We can only imagine the horrors and concerns facing each of you, your employees, their families, and those relying on your company for their imperative medical transportation. Our entire team will be lifting prayers for all affected, and stand ready to assist in any way possible. Please do not hesitate to reach out to one of our team members or me directly. We are here for you. TEXAS STRONG!

John Varner, AAI, ARM, CPCU
Sovereign Risk Solutions, LLC
Governor’s Ridge, Building 28
1640 Powers Ferry Road SE
Marietta, Georgia 30067
678-996-3403 Direct

Real Injuries, Real Expense… But Who is Liable??

March 4, 2015 by John Varner · Leave a Comment

Unfortunately accidents happen and people and property get injured or damaged, but, who is ultimately responsible is many times left up to the judicial system to determine when the parties cannot sort it out on their own. As anyone in business knows, the future cost of your commercial insurance is largely predicated upon your past claims history. Therefore, it’s hugely important to do all that you can to mitigate risk exposures where possible and actively involve yourself in the ongoing settlement of claims in conjunction with your broker and adjuster. The following case highlights just how emblazoned the plaintiff bar becomes when they think a large verdict is possible. While our client and contracted insurance company consider this a “win”, it still cost lots of money to defend and settle.

The following details a 3-day jury trial we finished last week for a non-emergency provider in rural America. It was an admitted liability case and plaintiff obtained a verdict for $150,000. The week before trial, we offered $150,000 in response to plaintiff’s last demand of $850,000. At trial, plaintiff asked for $1,850,000 based on $650,000 of medical specials.

The case was filed on behalf of an injured transport, a 70+ year-old mentally and physically disabled man with a very nice, affable disposition. He could communicate his needs but is essentially non-verbal. His younger sister filed the action as his conservator. [Read more…]

CAUTION: If you are an UBER driver, you may NOT be protected!

September 16, 2014 by John Varner · Leave a Comment

UBER has taken America by storm!

At a time when technology is advancing our lives in every imaginable way, UBER has single handedly transformed passenger transportation unlike any other single entity since Ford Motor Company! UBER’s software application allows a person desiring transportation to almost immediately electronically hail a vehicle from many locations in North America, and countries around the world. The primary reasons for UBER’s success is SIMPLICITY and CONVENIENCE, especially as compared to the old school methodology of calling a taxi dispatch company, waiting from someone to answer, waiting an unknown period of time for the car to arrive, and facing an unknown fare for the trip. UBER solves these inconveniences by communicating immediately with the passenger relative to the transport vehicle’s arrival time, trip cost, which is electronically billed to the passenger’s credit card, and in some cases including a photo of the driver. What could possibly be better?

For all the conveniences UBER has presented, there is a wake of destruction being created when something goes wrong for both the UBER driver AND passenger. [Read more…]

Understanding Policy Cancellations and Return Premiums

October 1, 2013 by John Varner · Leave a Comment

There are a myriad of reasons an Insured may elect to cancel their insurance coverage which range from the sale of an asset (i.e. – automobile or building), to a child becoming an independent adult, to simply closing a business. Regardless of the reason, there is a methodical process upon which the cancellation is documented, and unearned premiums returned to the Insured, all of which are closely governed by State insurance law.

To begin, every insurance policy has its own insuring agreements, exclusions, terms and conditions, wherein the specific cancellation process and methodology will be confirmed. [Read more…]

An Accident Happened! Now what?

April 3, 2013 by John Varner · Leave a Comment

We receive calls on a daily basis from our clients who say “We had an accident! Now what?”. This is generally a HIGHLY stressful time, and an incredibly important time in which you can take steps to protect or further expose yourself.

Our first recommendation is to take a deep breath, try to relax, and focus on the task at hand. You cannot “turn back time” and prevent this particular accident from happening. You cannot wish it away. You cannot sleep it away. You cannot hope that it’ll simply go away, it won’t. So, what do you need to do to protect yourself from this point forward?

To begin, you need to take immediate steps to care for persons (your employees, clients, members of the public) and property that has been impacted. Use common sense, initiate first aid, call the fire department, call the police, call an ambulance, remove undamaged property from a building in jeopardy of becoming damaged, etc. The next step is to gather all available information on the accident, who/what was involved, what allegedly occurred, who was allegedly at fault, were there corroborating witnesses, police reports, etc. Your ability to IMMEDIATELY gather this information is one of the most critical aspects of building a successful defense. We have accident investigation worksheets for a variety of incidents that will help direct your assessment and data gathering during this critical time. Please reach out to us promptly and begin the accident/incident investigation and documentation.

The next step is to work with us to evaluate the applicable commercial insurance policies that may respond to your accident, and for us to coordinate a timely report to the applicable insurance company(ies). All insurance contracts have a Conditions Section, whereby your (the Insured’s) activities are specifically spelled out, including the notification requirements when an accident or incident that has occurred and/or is likely to give rise to a claim. While each individual contract and insurance company will differ slightly, most require notification “promptly” or “as soon as practicable” or “upon written notice of demand”. The challenge is defining these timelines, as “promptly” to one person may be within 12 hours and “promptly” to the next person may be within 10 business days; dramatically differing timeline interpretations of the same word. When in doubt, simply reach out to your Sovereign representative and seek clarification. We will review the applicable circumstance in conjunction with your commercial insurance program and coordinate accordingly.

You spend a lot of hard earned monies on your commercial insurance program. It’s there to protect you, but, there are critical post-accident steps you must take to protect yourself AND be compliant with the terms and conditions of the applicable commercial insurance policy(ies).

We look forward to helping you navigate these important steps! Please reach out to your Sovereign representative for more details and/or specific preparedness planning that can be put into place now. As always, thank you for entrusting your business and insurance needs to Sovereign Risk Solutions!

Author: John Varner

Walk The Walk

December 11, 2012 by John Varner · Leave a Comment

We have all heard the old cliché “walk the walk”, but now more than ever before, it applies to how you manage risk and purchase commercial insurance. What exactly does “walk the walk” mean? In its simplest form, it means do what you said you would do. At this point you’re probably asking yourself “what the heck does this have to do with managing risk and purchasing insurance?”. The response is: EVERYTHING!

In today’s electronic world everything we do is captured, measured, evaluated and archived for future retrieval, review and use. We may be thinking that our signature on the world is limited if we don’t actively surf the internet, have a website or a blog, a Facebook or Twitter account, but the truth couldn’t be further from reality. Whether we like it or not, whether you have the aforementioned or not, each of us is leaving evidence of our lives and activities everywhere, as much as a herd of elephants walking through a muddy creek bed. It’s the new reality, and one we must acknowledge and embrace in order to position ourselves in the best possible light.

Ok, now to risk management and insurance world. We recently processed a coverage application on a new, prospective non-emergency medical transportation client. The application contained all the usual and typical information, and also included a written, standard policy statement from the owner of the company. Unfortunately, upon closer inspection by the insurance company underwriter, it was identified that the reality was different from the rhetoric contained in the owner’s policy statement. When this occurs it causes underwriters to begin to question everything else in the business owner’s application (the dirty restaurant bathroom scenario), which generally leads to suspicion and less than the best possible terms, conditions and pricing.

This prospective company had been non-renewed by their expiring insurer due to unusual loss activity and the best we could obtain was a tripling of their premium, which was exacerbated greatly due to reality not matching the written statement at application. The only thing worse than not having written risk management processes and protocols, is actually having them and blatantly not following them.

We recognize that financial restraints and other distractions may get in the way of operationally enforcing stated processes and protocols, however, if you want to protect your company and minimize your commercial insurance expense, you must find the time to review your operations to make certain you are “walking the walk”, not just “talking the talk”.

The Sovereign team is here to help in all aspects of setting up professional, usable, and enforceable risk management processes and protocols to be certain that you are protected, and that your costs are minimized.

Author: John Varner

Exposure and Experience: the drivers of your insurance cost

November 20, 2012 by John Varner · Leave a Comment

In the most simplistic terms, your insurance cost is determined based on two factors: Exposure and Experience. By exposure, we mean what you do, what line of business you are in, where you operate (there are wide variations in legal venues across the Country) and the like. By experience, we mean your actual historical experience in the business, and specifically, what your historical accident and loss history has been. Insurance companies are essentially actuarial forecasters, whereby they attempt to predict what their future claims cost will be based on what your historical exposure and experience trends have been, if they were to underwrite and offer you a proposal for insurance. It’s a highly sophisticated process internally for them, but, in essence it boils down to exposure and experience.

So, as respects exposure, there are a myriad of ways we at Sovereign work to educate our clients on how to best position and package themselves to the underwriting marketplace to ensure they receive the best overall coverage, cost and service offerings. We work closely with each client to tailor risk management programs that fit their operational and fiscal abilities. A “one size fits all” approach simply doesn’t work in our opinion; besides, no one likes to be treated like just another passenger on the bus. In future blogs, we will offer more details on individual services that we coordinate on behalf of our clients that add real value, now and into the future.

As respects experience, we highly recommend that our clients always look for ways to expand their business and industry knowledge to remain at the forefront of their respective field. We also work diligently to ensure we are also at that forefront of knowledge to ensure we are educating and protecting our clients to fullest extent of our abilities.

Let’s now turn the discussion specifically to your historical accident and loss experience. Many times our clients think this is an area upon which they have no control, but they do, and should exercise that control as much as possible. Keep in mind, your future insurance cost will be highly predicated upon your historical losses, and as such there are a few activities you must do to ensure the dollars that get paid are as limited as possible. Again, we tailor claims and litigation strategies for each client, but, in general you must do the following, at a bare minimum, to ensure you control your claims cost as much as possible:

Promptly notify your insurance carrier of any incident that may give rise to a claim. You may think “well, if I do that on every little thing, I’ll receive a cost increase or worse, be cancelled”. While discretion must apply, if there’s a meaningful probability that a claim will be filed, its incumbent upon you to take swift action, report the incident and get an adjuster assigned who can begin the process of communicating with you and any third parties to resolve the matter as quickly, as amicably, and lawyer free as possible.
Complete an accident investigation, yourself, and report your findings to your adjuster. The better equipped you make your adjuster, generally speaking the better job they can do in negotiating an amicable solution. Again, discretion must apply, and you should be cautious of sensitive information that you uncover to ensure it remains privileged when advisable. When in doubt, involve your client service specialist and we’ll help you navigate this pathway.
If your accident investigation yields any procedural or operational deficits in your business, take swift action to correct it so that the same incident probability is mitigated as much as possible.
Regularly review and question the status of any open claims. It never ceases to amaze us how many times we come into client relationships whereby cases, with large reserves remain open, years down the road only because no one pressed the adjuster to substantiate and/or update the reserve. YOU PAY FOR THAT RESERVE OVER AND OVER, EACH YEAR YOU RENEW YOUR INSURANCE.

We hope that you have found this information insightful and useful, and look forward to serving you now, and into the future!

Author: John Varner

Taxicab, Limousine and Paratransit Association Annual Meeting

November 5, 2012 by John Varner · Leave a Comment

We recently attended the TLPA’s annual conference in Las Vegas and were very impressed with the Association, the meetings and presentations. The venue, Caesars Palace, created an opportune environment to learn, network and socialize. While there were a myriad of topics discussed, the overall perception that we came away with was one of professionalism. The transportation industry has long been viewed as not organized, highly fragmented and low on professional standards. We are convinced that Members of the TLPA are the best in class operators, who are serious about their businesses, are serious about the issues facing their industry and are organizing to ensure they are at the forefront of how to navigate the future.

The exhibit hall presented us an opportunity to meet with a variety of other companies who also serve the needs of the industry, from specialized vehicle manufactures, to transportation brokers, to dispatch and monitoring systems and services. It was very apparent that technology has become a critical link to operate effectively and efficiently in this industry, and many suppliers were represented.

The Association has numerous initiatives currently underway ranging from legislative/regulatory (NYC ADA case, MAP-21, distracted driver, etc), environmental (non-profit relations, broker relations, union organization, etc) and TLPA Member image through Operator and Driver of the year awards programs and Community Connections.

We enjoyed getting to learn more about the global issues facing the industry and the TLPA’s role in helping professionally engage the future. We highly recommend that any transportation company wishing to enhance its knowledge, experience and/or image to seriously consider joining the TLPA.

As always, your Sovereign team is here to support all your risk management, insurance and surety needs.

Author: John Varner

Hurricane Harvey

Real Injuries, Real Expense… But Who is Liable??

CAUTION: If you are an UBER driver, you may NOT be protected!

UBER has taken America by storm!

Understanding Policy Cancellations and Return Premiums

An Accident Happened! Now what?

Walk The Walk

Exposure and Experience: the drivers of your insurance cost

Taxicab, Limousine and Paratransit Association Annual Meeting

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