Why insurance companies love us

Insurance companies make their money on probability and premiums. The goal is to have up to 10x as much money coming into the company than goes out every year. Every so often you end up with a large-scale catastrophe that ends with a large sum of money being written out to your customers, but one thing to keep in mind is that catastrophes don't necessarily mean everybody is affected.

As an insurance company, you should always make sure that you are only executing claims that you absolutely have to, otherwise you're losing money. When the claim is related directly to personal property, it is always in your best interest to hire a forensic engineer. The time always comes when your adjuster just doesn't quite know for sure, and the claim is too large to let it go un-researched. Sending out a forensic engineering company to do an insurance investigation into whether or not it was a fraudulent claim is extremely important!

Fourth Is Over, So are you

The Fourth of July is offically over and done with, but considering the previous years...you have to wonder how many people are looking at filing insurance claims for burned down homes. The 4th always offers any forensic engineer with a rash of new stories of people being dumb and lighting off smoke bombs in the home, or accidentally knocking over an artillery shell while running for cover. The main problem with these things is that they are essentially explosives, used and operated by children who are of course under the strict supervision of other non-experts. Fireworks can really cause terrible fires, requiring insurance companies to investigate to determine what exactly their policies cover.

Excellent Book

This is a great book about forensic engineering and explosion investigations!

This book covers literally everything you may encounter, from arson to explosions, car accidents to machinery malfunctions.

Check it out!

Forensics for you!

Ah, it's been quite a while since I have had time to hit the old blog - but it won't stop me today! I'm excited to be able to get out and go golfing for the third time this week, but more excited to get out and meet more of the other's family this weekend for the fourth of july!

Onward to the important stuff...

Now more than ever it seems that efficiency is the target of nearly everybody that owns, well, anything. People are very keen on saving dollars by adding insulation around their doors, or using a hypothermic mat on their porch. The problem is, however, when somebody decides to save some cash by doing something hazardous, such as installing a heating stove on their own when they don't really know what they are doing. Sometimes stoves have a tendency to be used, and when the flute is not correctly installed...sometimes things catch on fire. Anyways, you probably know what I'm getting at here. Basically, this is why there is a need for forensics. When a house is burned down, a whole lot of evidence is suddenly mangled or destroyed. It's very difficult to be able to make a certain assessment of whether or not something that was destroyed in a fire was initially constructed properly.

A Few Good Topics on this Fine April Fool's Day!

Well it's April fools day, and Google is at it again.  I don't think I'll soon forget their Google Moon prank with the zoomed in level of cheese, but today's was particularly good!  Check it out if you haven't seen it already...http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/cadie/index.html

Back to the important things.  Energy Audits are still a hot topic right now in the news, with homeowners reaping the benefits of tax deductions for simple things, including replacing and upgrading energy in-efficient parts of your home.  Good thing this administration is paying us to get new stuff :)

Another thing to check out is this page for rental properties in the Omaha area.  If you're looking, this is definitely the place to look!

Energy Audits

A home energy audit is a very necessary utility in today's green world. Every home has some location where a fairly good deal of it's contained heat is lost to the outside world, requiring more fuel to keep it at the right temperature. Energy audits are really an excellent tool to help you save money, and help save a bit of the earth as well. Now, I know that these things can usually be expensive...but for opponents of this idea I have two words: Obama stimulus. He's basically making it free for people to get energy audits done. And then, you even can seek a tax credit of up to $6500 for efficiency replacements on your home. Excellent deal? Yes.

Auto Accident Investigations

You may be wondering the types of accidents that would require the services of an auto accident investigator.  For the most part, you will never seek out the services of one for the more common accidents such as fender-benders, rear-ending, or vehicle-object collisions.  What may require the services of an accident investigator are the types of wrecks that have rather unkown causes.  Say for example the driver accidentally veers off of the road and strikes another vehicle or pedestrian.  The driver is sure that they were completely fine, and the car seemed to start "steering itself".  An accident investigator may be brought in to examine the car and find out if it was a manufacturer defect, driver error, or lack of routine maintenance.

Bill