Tuesday, July 7, 2009

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!

Monday, July 6, 2009

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.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

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.

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.