One of my claims managers was given the opportunity to become a risk manager. Although I hated to see her go, I was proud of her and excited for her to move up in her career.

Historically, the insurance claims process for property damage starts with a claims professional assessing damage on-site and ends by giving a homeowner a check for fixing the damage. This old model places the responsibility on the property owner to research and vet qualified contractors to start the restoration process, a particularly heavy burden to bear in moments of crisis.

As an attorney with more than 20 years of litigation experience, several themes have recurred over that time. And while we are bound to see these themes again in the future, we can take steps to control them.

The resolution of a claim involves much more than simply attending a mediation session to negotiate a settlement. The final negotiation of the settlement is often only a small percentage of actual claims activity. Yet there seems to be a greater focus among claims professionals on negotiation than on persuasion.

The ability to communicate effectively with all levels of colleagues and clients is one of the most important skills you can have to lead to success. In today’s high-tech and high-speed world, communication is more important than ever.

I have been asked a number of times to provide my perspective on the insurance industry in the time of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. In this piece I’ll do so, but first, how did we get to 4.0? What preceded and led to this brave new world of what’s now called “IR4”?

Firefighting is a hot, exhausting, and dangerous job, and it’s one in which 75 percent of the people doing it do it for free.

This year’s Cyber Monday became the highest online shopping day of all time with a reported $8 billion in sales. That means billions of dollars in products are on their way to the front porches of many homes where package thieves may be waiting.

Claims professionals are very DIY-types. So, this information is aimed at helping develop your DIY resume writing skills to avoid the many pitfalls that will prevent your resume from being selected to that one great job that you really want, whether that means a better company, more substantial claims and smaller caseload, newer technology, or more money.

One huge fire was caused by a spark set off by a man with a hammer, working on a fence post in a field of dry vegetation. Another began at a backyard barbecue. A 2007 fire on Santa Catalina Island was ignited by workers cutting metal wires with a torch.

Good employees can be hard to find. That’s why clever employers know to seize any opportunity to find workers — even on a ride from the airport.

A lot has already been written about blockchain and what it is, but for those who need a quick refresher, Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani provided this summation in the January-February 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review, “The Truth About Blockchain”: “The technology at the heart of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way. The ledger itself can also be programmed to trigger transactions automatically.”

We only hear half of what we listen to. Perhaps that is why most people instinctively use tautology when they write or speak. Tautology is the use of different words to say the same thing or repeating the same thing twice, often in the same sentence, using different words.

Insurance is a business of change and only the flexible and the open-minded have the chance to survive and thrive. That is the mindset of Elizabeth Francy Demaret (pictured), Sedgwick’s chief of staff and executive vice president for carrier relations.

The topic of Industry 4.0 has been discussed at many conferences in recent times. When you talk to participants and colleagues, you quickly realize that everyone associates this buzz phrase with something different.