WHY DO I NEED EMPLOYEE DISHONESTY COVERAGE??

WHAT IS IT?

This insurance protects the employer from financial loss due to the fraudulent activities of an employee or group of employees. The loss can be the result of the employee’s theft of money, securities or other property of the employer.

WHY DO I NEED IT?

Fraud and embezzlement in the workplace is on the rise. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) estimates business losses $400 billion per year or about 6% of total annual revenue. Small companies can be especially effected by theft and embezzlement because they can’t afford extensive safeguards and aren’t large enough to absorb losses. Workplace crime is carried out by employees 80% of the time. One in four employees who has committed fraud against their employer had been with the company more than ten years.

WHAT DOES IT COVER?

Stand alone policies are designed to cover employee thefts, robbery and safe burglaries. Coverage can also include:

    1. Forgery or alteration

    2. Funds transfer fraud

    3. Computer fraud

    4. Credit card fraud

    5. Money order and counterfeit fraud

On a personal note, My brother in law owns a small business which in many instances requires that you hire one person who you trust to undertake a broad range of responsibilities.  In his case, he hired someone who was in charge of paying bills, balancing books, depositing checks, etc.  After being employed for several years with his company, they found out that this employee had been stealing money and making unauthorized charges on company credit cards then covering them up with other expenses.  This can be a huge devastation for a small business that lives by cash-flow. 

In another example, a local trucking company recently found out that their controller has been embezzling money from them for a number of years to the sum of about $1.3 million.

Many times the people who are found stealing money from their employer are people who feel they are very trusted and might feel entitled to more money or benefits.  The worst thing an employer could do is assume that they have great employees who would never do anything to harm the company.  Employee Dishonesty insurance can help protect you against these financial losses.  If you questions about this or would like to discuss ways to ensure proper limits and coverage please contact me!

Insurance Market

Here is a good short article about insurance pricing from the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers.  It is definitely a buyers market right now with pricing being driven down by fierce competition in the industry.  We are seeing unprecedented drops in premiums tied to increased coverage.  Because of this, I am careful to select 5-7 insurance markets for each of my accounts so I can find the best combination of coverage and pricing for my customers.  I can't guarantee that there isnt a lower price out there somewhere, because it would be impossible to cover every market.  However, I feel that I am doing my job by approaching a good number of companies for each account so we know that our pricing is competitive among the top insurers for each industry.  In this type of market, buyers have to be aware that there are insurance companies out there that are trying to buy business by offering extremely low rates.  Some of these companies are dangerous to do business with because they have likely cut out portions of coverage or they might be financially unstable and trying to collect whatever premium they can because they know there are people out there who will choose them solely based on price.  Sooner or later the market will turn and pricing will start to tighten up and maybe increase.  When that happens, you will find much more value in having a relationship with an insurance broker who understands the coverage forms and rates and can negotiate a good product.

COUNCIL SURVEY SHOWS COMMERCIAL PROPERTY/CASUALTY RATES
MELTING IN SUMMER HEAT WASHINGTON, D.C., July 19, 2010
"It’s the same old story," said Council President Ken A. Crerar. "Carriers continue to fight aggressively for new business as capacity flows into the market. It’s like someone forgot to turn off the spigot. No one seems to know when the reservoir will dry up, but in the meantime, it’s definitely a buyers’ market."
Commercial renewal pricing for small, medium and large business accounts continued to decline in the second quarter, compared with the first quarter of the year. Large account rate declines were again slightly more than the other accounts, but pricing for all account sizes was soft, according to The Council’s survey data. All individual commercial lines included in the survey experienced rate decreases, compared with the previous quarter. – Excess capacity chasing market share in the commercial property/casualty marketplace has resulted in another quarter of declining renewal pricing, according to The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers’ second quarter Commercial P/C Market Index Survey. On average, renewal rates dropped by about 6 percent in the second quarter, compared with a 5 percent decrease in the first quarter of 2010.  Brokers across the country reported that capacity was plentiful for all lines:
"New carriers continue to enter the marketplace, further driving rates down. The capacity seems endless at this point."
"Carriers have lots of capacity for new business, but also don’t want to lose renewals. If there’s competition they will lower price."
"Appetite for premium is at a desperate level. New capacity continues to come into the market (inexplicably) and there is not enough premium to feed all the mouths."
"There is an abundance of capacity for D&O and other management liability coverage. Carriers are seeking to maintain market share by cutting premium and expanding coverage."
Buyers found good deals not only on pricing last quarter, but on terms and conditions as well, according to survey comments. "Carriers are open to improving deductibles, terms and conditions in hopes of being able to keep premium flat," said one respondent. Another broker saw "lower deductibles, broader coverage terms, more liberal terms." Still another remarked that there are "generally broader terms, no additional restrictions in coverage."
There was no notable change in customer demand for insurance in the second quarter, the brokers said. Only 26 percent of those surveyed said demand was up – about the same response as in the first quarter.
The economy and credit crisis remain the top concern of brokers across the country.

phil heath Kai Greene Branch Warren after the 2009 Mr Olympia video phil heath met rx

phil heath

video of phil heath Kai Greene and Branch Warren after the 2009 Mr Olympia, phil heath was unlucky at the 2009 mr olympia due to some illness going into the mr olympia bodybuilding contest.

but aspect to see phil heath pushing for the 2010 mr olympia title and in much better condition then the 2009 mr olympia contest.

phil heath is wearing a met rx t-shirt in the video not sure if phil heath is still sponsored by met rx or not now.

Saturated Fat and Insulin Sensitivity

Insulin sensitivity is a measure of the tissue response to insulin. Typically, it refers to insulin's ability to cause tissues to absorb glucose from the blood. A loss of insulin sensitivity, also called insulin resistance, is a core part of the metabolic disorder that affects many people in industrial nations.

I don't know how many times I've seen the claim in journal articles and on the internet that saturated fat reduces insulin sensitivity. The idea is that saturated fat reduces the body's ability to handle glucose effectively, placing people on the road to diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Given the "selective citation disorder" that plagues the diet-health literature, perhaps this particular claim deserves a closer look.

The Evidence

I found a review article from 2008 that addressed this question (1). I like this review because it only includes high-quality trials that used reliable methods of determining insulin sensitivity*.

On to the meat of it. There were 5 studies in which non-diabetic people were fed diets rich in saturated fat, and compared with a group eating a diet rich in monounsaturated (like olive oil) or polyunsaturated (like corn oil) fat. They ranged in duration from one week to 3 months. Four of the five studies found that fat quality did not affect insulin sensitivity, including one of the 3-month studies.

The fifth study, which is the one that's nearly always cited in the diet-health literature, requires some discussion. This was the KANWU study (2). Over the course of three months, investigators fed 163 volunteers a diet rich in either saturated fat or monounsaturated fat.

The SAFA diet included butter and a table margarine containing a relatively high proportion of SAFAs. The MUFA diet included a spread and a margarine containing high proportions of oleic acid derived from high-oleic sunflower oil and negligible amounts of trans fatty acids and n-3 fatty acids and olive oil.

Yummy. After three months of these diets, there was no significant difference in insulin sensitivity between the saturated fat group and the monounsaturated fat group. Yes, you read that right. Even the study that's selectively cited as evidence that saturated fat causes insulin resistance found no significant difference between the diets. You might not get this by reading the misleading abstract. I'll be generous and acknowledge that the (small) difference was almost statistically significant (p = 0.053).

What the authors decided to focus on instead is the fact that insulin sensitivity declined slightly but significantly on the saturated fat diet compared with the pre-diet baseline. That's why this study is cited as evidence that saturated fat impairs insulin sensitivity. But anyone who has a basic science background will see where this reasoning is flawed (warning: nerd attack. skip the rest of the paragraph if you're not interested). You need a control group for comparison, to take into account normal fluctuations caused by such things as the season, eating mostly cafeteria food, and having a doctor hooking you up to machines. That control group was the group eating monounsaturated fat. The comparison between diet groups was the 'primary outcome', in statistics lingo. That's the comparison that matters, and it wasn't significant. To interpret the study otherwise is to ignore the basic conventions of statistics, which the authors were happy to do. There's a name for it: 'moving the goalpost'. The reviewers shouldn't have let this kind of shenanigans slide.

So we have five studies through 2008, none of which support the idea that saturated fat reduces insulin sensitivity in non-diabetics. Since the review paper was published, I know of one subsequent study that asked the same question (3). Susan J. van Dijk and colleagues fed volunteers with abdominal overweight (beer gut) a diet rich in either saturated fat or monounsaturated fat. I e-mailed the senior author and she said the saturated fat diet was "mostly butter". The specific fats used in the diets weren't mentioned anywhere in the paper, which is a major omission**. In any case, after 8 weeks, insulin sensitivity was virtually identical between the two groups. This study appeared well controlled and used the gold standard method for assessing insulin sensitivity, called the euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp technique***.

The evidence from controlled trials is rather consistent that saturated fat has no appreciable effect on insulin sensitivity.

Why Are We so Focused on Saturated Fat?

Answer: because it's the nutrient everyone loves to hate. As an exercise in completeness, I'm going to mention three dietary factors that actually reduce insulin sensitivity, and get a lot less air time than saturated fat.

#1: Caffeine. That's right, controlled trials show that your favorite murky beverage reduces insulin sensitivity (4, 5). Is it actually relevant to real life? I doubt it. The doses used were large and the studies short-term.

#2: Magnesium deficiency. A low-magnesium diet reduced insulin sensitivity by 25% over the course of three weeks (6). I think this is probably relevant to long-term insulin sensitivity and overall health, although it would be good to have longer-term data. Magnesium deficiency is widespread in industrial nations, due to our over-reliance on refined foods such as sugar, white flour and oils.

#3: Sugar. Fructose reduces insulin sensitivity in humans, along with many other harmful effects (7).

As long as we continue to focus our energy on indicting saturated fat, it will continue distracting us from the real causes of disease.


* For the nerds: euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp (the gold standard), insulin suppression test, or intravenous glucose tolerance test with Minimal Model. They didn't include studies that reported HOMA as their only measure, because it's not very accurate.

** There's this idea that pervades the diet-health literature that all saturated fats are roughly equivalent, all monounsaturated fats are equivalent, etc., therefore it doesn't matter what the source was. This is beyond absurd and reflects our cultural obsession with saturated fat. It really irks me that the reviewers didn't demand this information.

*** They did find that markers of inflammation in fat tissue were higher after the saturated fat diet.

Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part IX

A Summary

For those who didn't want to wade through the entire nerd safari, I offer a simple summary.

Our ancestors had straight teeth, and their wisdom teeth came in without any problem. The same continues to be true of a few non-industrial cultures today, but it's becoming rare. Wild animals also rarely suffer from orthodontic problems.

Today, the majority of people in the US and other affluent nations have some type of malocclusion, whether it's crooked teeth, overbite, open bite or a number of other possibilities.

There are three main factors that I believe contribute to malocclusion in modern societies:

1. Maternal nutrition during the first trimester of pregnancy. Vitamin K2, found in organs, pastured dairy and eggs, is particularly important. We may also make small amounts from the K1 found in green vegetables.
2. Sucking habits from birth to age four. Breast feeding protects against malocclusion. Bottle feeding, pacifiers and finger sucking probably increase the risk of malocclusion. Cup feeding and orthodontic pacifiers are probably acceptable alternatives.
3. Food toughness. The jaws probably require stress from tough food to develop correctly. This can contribute to the widening of the dental arch until roughly age 17. Beef jerky, raw vegetables, raw fruit, tough cuts of meat and nuts are all good ways to exercise the jaws.
   

And now, an example from the dental literature to motivate you. In 1976, Dr. H. L. Eirew published an interesting paper in the British Dental Journal. He took two 12-year old identical twins, with identical class I malocclusions (crowded incisors), and gave them two different orthodontic treatments. Here's a picture of both girls before the treatment:


In one, he made more space in her jaws by extracting teeth. In the other, he put in an apparatus that broadened her dental arch, which roughly mimics the natural process of arch growth during childhood and adolescence. This had profound effects on the girls' subsequent occlusion and facial structure:

The girl on the left had teeth extracted, while the girl on the right had her arch broadened. Under ideal circumstances, this is what should happen naturally during development. Notice any differences?

Thanks to the Weston A Price foundation's recent newsletter for the study reference.

Magnesium and Insulin Sensitivity

From a paper based on US NHANES nutrition and health survey data (1):

During 1999–2000, the diet of a large proportion of the U.S. population did not contain adequate magnesium... Furthermore, racial or ethnic differences in magnesium persist and may contribute to some health disparities.... Because magnesium intake is low among many people in the United States and inadequate magnesium status is associated with increased risk of acute and chronic conditions, an urgent need exists to perform a current survey to assess the physiologic status of magnesium in the U.S. population.

Magnesium is an essential mineral that's slowly disappearing from the modern diet, as industrial agriculture and industrial food processing increasingly dominate our food choices. One of the many things it's necessary for in mammals is proper insulin sensitivity and glucose control. A loss of glucose control due to insulin resistance can eventually lead to diabetes and all its complications.

Magnesium status is associated with insulin sensitivity (2, 3), and a low magnesium intake predicts the development of type II diabetes in most studies (4, 5) but not all (6). Magnesium supplements largely prevent diabetes in a rat model* (7). Interestingly, excess blood glucose and insulin themselves seem to reduce magnesium status, possibly creating a vicious cycle.

In a 1993 trial, a low-magnesium diet reduced insulin sensitivity in healthy volunteers by 25% in just four weeks (8). It also increased urinary thromboxane concentration, a potential concern for cardiovascular health**.

At least three trials have shown that magnesium supplementation increases insulin sensitivity in insulin-resistant diabetics and non-diabetics (9, 10, 11). In some cases, the results were remarkable. In type II diabetics, 16 weeks of magnesium supplementation improved fasting glucose, calculated insulin sensitivity and HbA1c*** (12). HbA1c dropped by 22 percent.

In insulin resistant volunteers with low blood magnesium, magnesium supplementation for four months reduced estimated insulin resistance by 43 percent and decreased fasting insulin by 32 percent (13). This suggests to me that magnesium deficiency was probably one of the main reasons they were insulin resistant in the first place. But the study had another very interesting finding: magnesium improved the subjects' blood lipid profile remarkably. Total cholesterol decreased, LDL decreased, HDL increased and triglycerides decreased by a whopping 39 percent. The same thing had been reported in the medical literature decades earlier when doctors used magnesium injections to treat heart disease, and also in animals treated with magnesium. Magnesium supplementation also suppresses atherosclerosis (thickening and hardening of the arteries) in animal models, a fact that I may discuss in more detail at some point (14, 15).

In the previous study, participants were given 2.5 g magnesium chloride (MgCl2) per day. That's a bit more than the USDA recommended daily allowance (MgCl2 is mostly chloride by weight), in addition to what they were already getting from their diet. Most of a person's magnesium is in their bones, so correcting a deficiency by eating a nutritious diet may take a while.

Speaking of nutritious diets, how does one get magnesium? Good sources include halibut, leafy greens, chocolate and nuts. Bone broths are also an excellent source of highly absorbable magnesium. Whole grains and beans are also fairly good sources, while refined grains lack most of the magnesium in the whole grain. Organic foods, particularly artisanally produced foods from a farmer's market, are richer in magnesium because they grow on better soil and often use older varieties that are more nutritious.

The problem with seeds such as grains, beans and nuts is that they also contain phytic acid which prevents the absorption of magnesium and other minerals (16). Healthy non-industrial societies that relied on grains took great care in their preparation: they soaked them, often fermented them, and also frequently removed a portion of the bran before cooking (17). These steps all served to reduce the level of phytic acid and other anti-nutrients. I've posted a method for effectively reducing the amount of phytic acid in brown rice (18). Beans should ideally be soaked for 24 hours before cooking, preferably in warm water.

Industrial agriculture has systematically depleted our soil of many minerals, due to high-yield crop varieties and the fact that synthetic fertilizers only replace a few minerals. The mineral content of foods in the US, including magnesium, has dropped sharply in the last 50 years. The reason we need to use fertilizers in the first place is that we've broken the natural nutrient cycle in which minerals always return to the soil in the same place they were removed. In 21st century America, minerals are removed from the soil, pass through our toilets, and end up in the landfill or in waste water. This will continue until we find an acceptable way to return human feces and urine to agricultural soil, as many cultures do to this day****.

I believe that an adequate magnesium intake is critical for proper insulin sensitivity and overall health.


* Zucker rats that lack leptin signaling

** Thromboxane A2 is an omega-6 derived eicosanoid that potently constricts blood vessels and promotes blood clotting. It's interesting that magnesium has such a strong effect on it. It indicates that fatty acid balance is not the only major influence on eicosanoid production.

*** Glycated hemoglobin. A measure of the average blood glucose level over the past few weeks.

**** Anyone interested in further reading on this should look up The Humanure Handbook

Liability Issues For Builders

In an effort to reduce costs, add value, and become more efficient, the building industry is constantly looking for new products and ways to be innovative which may or may not stand the test of time.  Some prime examples of this are synthetic stucco (EIFS), masonite siding, polybutylene plumbing, and Chinese drywall. 

About 10 years ago the insurance industry was hit hard with a construction defect crisis due to the use of some of these products.  At the time, most of the costs of covering these defects were covered by the General Liability policies of the builders, manufacturers, and distributors.  This led to two major insurance changes for these industries:  First, most insurers left the market deciding that they could not be profitable at any premium with these classes of business.  Second, the remaining insurers decided that they did not want to fund the next wave of construction defect claims.  This resulted in adopting exclusion endorsements that could be added to their policies that are designed to limit their risk.

The following are some common exclusions which can severely limit coverage for builders:

1)  EIFS Exclusion:  If you install or repair Synthetic Stucco, you very likely will need to purchase a special General Liability policy from the high-risk insurance markets.

2)  Soil Movement Exclusion:  Expansive soils can lead to and have been a major source for construction defect claims.  You can usually pick up coverage for this through certain home owner's warranty products.

3)  Absolute Pollution Exclusion: This is a powerful exclusion that can have consequences beyond what you normally think of as pollution. This is exemplified in the recently emerging Chinese drywall crisis where its alleged that drywall from certain plants in China release noxious fumes that cause corrosion of metal in a home, a foul smelling odor, and health problems. The insurance carriers plan on denying these claims by using the Absolute Pollution Exclusion. Pollution is broadly defined under this exclusion as any solid, liquid, or gaseous contaminant or irritant. Once again, if you are concerned about this exposure, you can buy a special Pollution Liability policy through the high risk marketplace.

4)  Prior Completed Operations Exclusion: The standard General Liability policy form normally picks up coverage for building operations completed prior to the start of the policy term as long as the covered “property damage” or “bodily injury” occurs during the policy term. However, with the addition of the Prior Completed Operations Exclusion, coverage for prior completed operations is eliminated. This presents a problem because the General Liability forms from the prior years don’t pick up this coverage to the extent that the “property damage” or “bodily injury” occurs after the expiration of the prior policy terms. Some versions of this endorsement limit its scope to “property damage” only. You may want to attempt to negotiate the elimination of this endorsement if it appears on your policy.

5)  Products / Completed Operations Exclusion: This exclusion has perhaps the most devastating impact of any of the construction defect exclusions. Quite simply, this exclusion eliminates coverage for all “bodily injury” and “property damage” that occurs after the home has been sold. This would require you as a builder to purchase separate warranties through another company or find an insurance carrier that will remove this exclusion.

6)  Exclusion: Damage To Your Work Performed By Subcontractors On Your Behalf (CG2294): Around 2004, most carriers began adding this exclusion to builder’s General Liability policies to eliminate the favorable coverage exception that was granted to builders (that were general contractors) under the Property Damage To Your Work Exclusion listed above. The presence of CG2294 eliminates coverage for construction defect claims. If CG2294 appears on your policy, there are two viable solutions. First, ask if your carrier has a “buyback” of the lost coverage for an additional premium charge. Second, search for a carrier that has a less severe version of this exclusion that only eliminates coverage for “property damage” to the faulty work itself but not to resulting “property damage” to the non-faulty work.  The best thing to do is to make sure you are collecting certificates of insurance from your sub-contractors naming you as an additional insured on their policy.  Also, make sure you are working with subs who are stable enough to remain in business long after the job is completed.  This exclusion has been added to separate liability between subs and GC's so the GC's insurance is designed to protect them for things which they are actually liable for. 

It is imperative that builders employ aggressive risk management techniques to protect themselves and limit their losses.  A couple things I recommend:  First, contractually transfer these risks to your subcontractors by using hold-harmless agreements and enforcing insurance requirements.  Second, make sure you thouroughly document construction files and be proactive in dispute resolution.  Please contact me if you have any general questions about this or specific questions about your policy.