In this podcast we cover:
- What kinds of insurance are required in construction.
- What each one covers.
- How to make sure you are covered.
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Welcome everybody out to podcast number 1165 in this episode. We're going to talk about insurance. We're going to talk about coverage and you're going to meet a really, really neat human being Rocio who I met recently and she has absolutely blown me away with her attitude and wisdom and we're going to get some information out there for construction companies and professionals everywhere so stay with us. This is the elevate construction podcast delivering remarkable content for workers leaders and companies in construction wanting to take their next step. Get ready to step out of your comfort zone with Jason Schroeder as he encourages you to do better live a remarkable life and expect more. Let's go. Welcome everyone I hope you're doing well and I hope you're excited to meet our guest Rocio do you have well could you give us an introduction and tell us about your awesome self please. Yes so thank you for having me on Jason so if everyone does not know me my name is Rocio Luna and I am a commercial insurance broker and I specialize in lowering down EMRs to rock bottom so before I get into all of my skill what is an EMR so an EMR stands for experience modification rate and it is the rate that determines the workers comp premium for all employers across all states in the nation and why it's important it is because it determines your premium for your workers comp and for contractors to be specific it also allows you to bid or not bid specific jobs that's that's so helpful we hear that term all the time but digging into it is awesome so tell us a little bit about you what about your experience how did you get started with this let's get some connection going yes so I've been in the insurance space for about nine years I started off really young I'm 31 years old I started off right after college at each 22 as a claims assistant I had no idea I didn't even know what you know insurance really meant I just knew that you had to have insurance here in California state of California in order to drive so all I knew was that you know your personal auto that's what you need and of course you know the college student I carried the bare minimum I carried the bare minimum and when they applied after graduation I applied to all entry level positions and it just so happened that this commercial brokerage out in Huntington Beach was looking for a claims assistant that was bilingual and they were more concerned about the bilingual aspect so when I got interviewed you know I guess it was hard for them to find someone who actually was bilingual and they said look we're really desperate we need to have someone if we give you the job can you start can you start tomorrow and I was like it was a Friday so you know start Monday and I was like yes like I really need a job too they're like perfect I think I think we could work this out and I was like what's a claims assistant and they're like don't worry don't worry we're you know it's all trainable like you need no experience like we literally just need someone that could speak Spanish and has you know the the guts to learn it and if you like it you know you might find yourself a profession in the industry so I was very open-minded I went and I was like yeah okay um you know they could also throw in the you get to visit uh but site locations and go to manufacturers and construction sites and that kind of like opened up I was like oh okay cool like you know um when I start entry level but I'm also going to get exposed to companies where I was never exposed to so my first I would even say my first year I was literally drinking water out of a fire hose times 10 like I have no idea you know it was really scary like I had never seen a lawsuit I never even seen like you know a full-on like attorneys and and emails and it was honestly it was very um it was very frightful and that's why I understand employers when they receive a 10 20 page lawsuit claiming all these allegations because it is very scary especially because it fits your first time and you don't know how to deal with it so I you know had no idea what it was and I pretty much made google my best friend so google was my google was the first it was my go-to because there was nobody in the in the brokerage actually new claims so you know they would just tell me go you know call the insurance company find out you know kind of maneuver yourself and you know little by little I worked my way up into a claims manager and I did that for about six years and then I moved over to the sell side that's awesome I love that so so what's the business structure now so now I am a commercial insurance broker and I actually just started my consulting service about two weeks ago and that went public yesterday oh that's awesome that's awesome that's super cool and you're so one of the things that I want to say that's very important is that you have construction what I'm saying is you have specific experience when it comes to construction which is I'm oh go ahead sorry I don't want to interrupt no I'm nodding my head because yes um I do I am very risk management tailored and um specific to construction and a little bit manufactured just because that broke which was really heavy on the construction side so I learned so much on you know claims but also like certificates of insurance because like I said I I literally went built myself in the ground up and you know when someone would quit you know it kind of put me as the replacement temporarily so I learned a little bit about you know how to build my records how to put a certificate of insurance how to market an account like I know I know everything I'm actually very grateful for you know the past experiences well that's awesome that means a lot I'm learning that lawyer financial advisor accountant contracts administrator insurance broker and and I think I already said lawyer or it's very important that they have experience with construction specifically so I love this I love that I met all of the I don't even know who our lawyer is but I know I know that she's found us a good one and so I'm so I'm so happy to be introduced to you one thing before I get into the specifics here what is the most awesome thing about you what's your superpower like when people get to know you what's the coolest thing about you I would say the coolest thing about me is my tenacious so I'm very tenacious even that's something I've learned to I was a tenacious and also trying to be grounded at the same time so because you know when people come to me there's chaos you know the house is on fire and they need to have they need a plan right away and going through claims and being on the back side of the insurance has really got me to be creative so when you know when one door poses like you know this claim is denied or you can't go this route like no no no there's a way like and that comes with you know experience and knowing your coverages and so forth but in reality is a tenacity okay like we're gonna figure this out and somehow I'm gonna work away out where it's beneficial for my client and whoever I'm representing and also stream grounded because you know you have when you're going through you know I've as you know contracts they're very black and white there's no you know the theater yes or no and when you're dealing with a lot of pressure and allegations a lot of money on the ground you have to be very logical about it so you have to be logical but at the same time like have a right attitude you know you have to like go in there like okay like it wherever it goes like if it goes bad good or bad like the outcome is always going to be good because we're gonna we're gonna overcome this so even if it's like you know bad like we're our next step is like okay we're going to go to the next step and make sure that we move forward no matter what so it's always about just moving forward okay then one thing I've noticed about you is that you really like to set things up early on so you have the right structure so it it will work out I'm going to do this a little bit differently today I'm going to ask you at the end where we can get a hold of you but I'm also going to ask you now so anybody who um uh wants to know will do the contact information now and later but with your consulting business and your brokerage how can people get a hold of you where do you want people to find you yes so you can find me at my website which is rocio luna rocio luna l-u-n-a i-n-s.com that's our website you'll be linked everywhere but you could also find me on LinkedIn and the name would be rocio luna and you just type in rocio luna and might need to type in the word workers comp and that should be one of the first ones to pop up but yeah you could find me on my website and lengthen to set an appointment and and reach out to me and for everybody listening rocio has been amazing to work with I also see on linkedin one thing from a positive feedback standpoint I was actually telling Kate today this kind of a sidebar we'll get I'll get into real questions here in just a second but like I people would cold call me either phone call email or linkedin like 50 times a day and you know sometimes they're threatening sometimes it sounds like they've read the book never split the difference and they're playing games with me sometimes uh it's like I'm like how are these people selling anything and one of the things that I like about you is that you are on these platforms adding value adding value adding value adding value and I just think that that is the key and so I love your presence I love your approach I think that's going to do more to expand your influence than anything so that's just yes and to go off of that too I think for people marketers I mean there's nothing more annoying than getting that spam email and then the follow up a little question mark are you there like a little you know like like yeah like don't do that like I always tell anybody like if you give me your contact information yourself and believe me I'm not going to spam you I'm not going to call you I'm not going to send you those automated messages it's not that's not my style um I think especially now emails like nobody wants that last you know copy and paste email because everybody already received those so you know you want to make sure like you want to provide value and educate you know value whatever your value is and see like what is it how is it that you could help your specific client you know you want to give that and not just say like oh I'm an insurance producer you know like anyone could get you a quote a good price but it's like what what else do you bring besides that that's awesome okay so let's get right into it so I I do YouTube recordings maybe you do as well but I have I outline them do the YouTube video we cut it down it's like 10 minutes and I'm always like I got to hit the high points let's kind of pretend we're doing that they're doing that when it comes to coverage and it comes to insurance what is the key that either individuals or project managers or business owners need to remember like what is the thing that's like these are your hot buttons these are the biggest items for you it don't worry about making it all inclusive don't worry about making sure you don't miss something just like in your professional opinion like what are the things that we need to know okay I think everyone this goes to across all industries I think everybody needs to have a tailored outline for what to look for because I think a lot of people get lost because they don't know what they're looking for so I think having an outline of like these are the insurance requirements are very basic and when I mean basically you're going to look for workers comp general liability property insurance and the Marines so that's like for your tools and equipment access which is also known as umbrella and those are pretty much four key ones like if you just think about broad like you just want to make sure that you have coverage for the broad things that's what you need but honestly I always say that you to help out people I think it's very important that you have an outline inside your staff in office that people could refer to like okay you know when I'm looking to hire a subcontractor I'm looking to do business with this person I need to make sure that their certificate of insurance looks like XYZ which would be general liability workers comp and then commercial commercial umbrella to have all of those three coverages outlined in a certificate of insurance and I think just keeping it very broad like that just for like of the broad turns but if it's someone that is looking over projects and now you're trying to get specific and see if that specific contractor has the right endorsements the right coverage or the right brokerage then there's a whole different outline for that that would only pertain to like operations manager anyone who's looking over contracts and if you're going to be bidding and putting it all together that's perfect would you mind if we did one by one and just got one or two and we can do more but just got Rocio's opinion or just general explanation for what each one does for our listeners could we do one by one all right let's go yes let's go with the first one general liability so I'm sure everybody has heard oh I need you know geo general liability so general liability you need to always have that at one million no but no what's if it's one million that's almost the standard you're always going to get on all requirements across all states and why the general liability is protection against third parties so let's say if someone if one of your employees if you did something that hurt another person you want to make sure that that that that you have coverage for that outside person so it's you know the UPS guy comes and walks into your office now these look and fall that's general liability and that's something like very we can always think about keen specific and basic so you want to have general liability now we're going to go into workers comp so workers comp yes real quick just one thing I'm I'm really not trying to pander or be too positive of complimentary but that was perfect so you gave us the I just want to encourage you like that's so what you said what it is and then what to remember if you do that for all of them like this will be the podcast of the year so I just want to say great job keep going let's go through these thank you you know I wish I always try to keep it simple you know let's think about it example so next step uh workers comp now workers comp scheduling the requirements across the states are different you're going to see 500 000 and some states but honestly there's no there's this not hurt you to carry one million you can carry one million and one million it's not going to do too much to your premium and just do that because god forbid someone enters themselves thighs or worse they have a really bad accident when they're now in mobile you want to make sure that you have enough coverage for them and maybe for their future family so workers comp very simple workers comp covers your employees but if you hire a subcontractor who is not insured and make it her on the job your workers comp will now cover you for that so you it's also a very beneficial for you to have that I'm not encouraging you anyone to you know hire subcontractors that don't have insurance because you didn't do that but I know it does once in a while happen or if you hire you know your next-door neighbor who's a handyman or your friend of yours that you know temporarily does things um you you want to have the workers comp at one million workers comp is when employees are entered at work okay all right this is perfect such good examples commercial auto commercial auto is important especially if you have a fleet vehicle you want to have that at one million so one million same thing because there's catastrophic horrible accidents and then god forbid you hit someone um and they get they hire an attorney your attorney is always going to always ask for the highest limits on your policy and that's what they do they market it all the time they always say you know if you got if you got into a car accident you know hire one of us and we'll get you your best package and that's because as an attorney but once they get involved they do they will fight for full uh full limits on your policy so carry one million in your commercial auto now access also known as umbrella that is pretty much what will cover it will go over your workers comp and your general liability so your workers comp general liability and commercial auto your umbrella will now come over here and cover you for that so it's going to cover you for the liability aspect so let's take off for bid there's a horrible accident and this person is injured or the liability limits or you you already blown through your general liability and your commercial auto now your access is going to come in and tap in now access is not mandatory you'll see it mandatory in some projects but it's always good to carry it just because that is like your what if you know if you were to blow through your all your limits on your policies you have this umbrella to go to help you out with your what if situations okay and real quick will you cover builders risk for us just for a second and explain that yes so builders risk is uh policy pertain while the project is in process and being built so if you were to look at your general liability there is an endorsement and courage for operations completed that is because your general liability will cover you once the project is done builders risk does not cover that well there's risk is only for the time that the the building is being built so I always tell people it's the the length the time and it will cover you if you have a theft any type of natural disaster and if you were um if you were to have any type of failure between it but builders risk it's pretty much the general contractor is there to cover you and cover whoever you hire in case of anything anything bad happens outside okay are there any recommendations that you have for um setting up builders risk or any limits or anything else like that or is it will your broker be able to know um how to help you with that yes so I would always say you know look for a broker that understands builders risk and constructions to be specific but as a contractor and anyone who's a builder you have to make sure that you have the right limits uh I mean the right value of the of the project so let's save your bill uh bidding a hundred million two hundred million project you want to have that plus extras in there because you know in construction things could go to go south really easily um there might be a delay there might be you know god forbid there's you're building what next to a hurricane or some type of natural disaster and that put will push the um project to be delayed you want to make sure that you have the right um the right amount of coverage plus a little bit more in there and also you want to make sure that you somewhat plan out the time that it's going to end because builders risk is pretty much a policy it's enforced but you don't want to add an extra year because that's the next year and next year and add an extra six months then you're going to add more premium so you want to make sure that you have a good estimate of of of the time that the building will take that's that's awesome and I um I was a mealyo just reminded me I have some uh initial paperwork to set up so we can get started and I'll be doing that today I do I'm going to ask you in just a second what's one final call to action or piece of advice for the industry as we close this out but I do want to say I hope everyone uh can uh connect uh has learned from racio on this and as you started your consulting business for uh you know two weeks ago I'm excited to get you know hopefully be a small part of getting the message out real quick can you so probably two things oh so remember you can contact her through linkedin so rocio luna so rocio and then l-u-n-a and then I believe it's rocio luna uh i-n-s dot-com correct for the website okay uh amazing so my two questions is what do you do for consulting and then what is your advice call to action or closing comments and then we'll wrap it up um so for consulting I pretty much provide risk management procedure then like you know what is risk management so risk management it's pretty much we tailor it to what procedures and places you know Jason you run several companies and if you don't have SOPs in place it's very hard for things to function as they should you know what flow so same thing with um with any company you want to make sure that you have your plan in place to know what action steps do you take when someone gets injured because the thing that will push your claim and not make it as you know uh if you're trying to fight it or if you're trying to provide information not reporting a claim on time is the number one killer um and the reason things don't get reported on times because there wasn't a plan that you know the foreman the supervisor that you chart knew who you report to what to do what clinic what clinic to take them you know is it are you guys using a mobile medical service like how fast are you guys getting this and then having all the right documentation in place to send it over to the insurance company and then having someone manage that that aspect of it but when we look at that then we start looking at as well as your other stuff like your safety like what what procedures do you have like what trainees have you done you know oh you know we haven't done that training we need this um we you know we our guys are not CPR trained because some contractors will require some contractors to have like the baremen of CPR and knowing what to do as well when now we're just talking about like accidents and um and safety now the other aspect like you is having your staff train let's say you're on vacation Jason but your staff needs to make sure that this they collect their certificates of insurance from their contractors so what information are you looking for you know they it's great yeah so that's and that's one another thing as well that I help them out say okay you're going to be looking for you know this is your template this is what you're going to look for and you know if i'm not here Jason's not here this is what who you're going to contact if there's an accident because as you know accidents always happen you know when there's like three bad other things in the back plane so it always seems to happen that you know when it rains it pours and we're using and by the way the the training the standard operating procedures in the whole night we're going to be working just so everybody who's listening we're going to be working with receipt for all of that so i'm really excited that we'll have that all in place for a lean belt and that's fantastic so what's your closing comment what closes that what's your challenge to us um I wouldn't say challenge I would just say you need to remind yourself just to always um keep moving forward and and go in with a smile because you know this the the light is always there at the darkest moment you know when it gets the darkest just know that the light is going to come out the next day and if we have people on your uh people like you on our side we'll get through any of these hard situations and especially because we'll be well prepared yes I absolutely love that and I so I read a book Killing Sacred Cows by Garrett Gunderson and I love the book I don't know if you've read it or heard about it but he says always have the right coverage is always being assured you do not want to get yourself in trouble your business is too important your job is so crucial and life is too short to mess this up so Rosie thank you for being on the podcast you've been absolutely amazing and I just love uh working with you so far and can't wait to see what happens out ahead so um everybody listening please contact her if you want any more information but I hope you've enjoyed this and uh ain't any uh thing you want to say before I close it out no thank you so much Jason I really appreciate you um I look forward to having you as a client and working with you I mean you have the you know you have the best attorney next to you Megan who's she just you know you have really you have your you surround yourself with a good group a group of people that we're all going to protect you you know God forbid anything goes south and that's what when when it comes down when your butt is on the line you want to have that kind of team so thank you for being on that team Rosie you're amazing everybody I hope you've enjoyed this podcast and on we go please join us next time in elevating the entire construction experience for workers leaders and companies coast to coast if you're enjoying the show please feel free to share with your construction colleagues and help us spread the word by rating subscribing and leaving a review on your preferred podcast listening platform we really appreciate it. We'll catch you next time on the elevate construction podcast you a [BLANK_AUDIO]
