How A One-Two Weather Punch And AWOL Adjusters Became A Property Program’s Perfect Storm

Risk managers never sleep easy, nor do they take anything for granted. Charlene Schultson, the Executive Vice President Commercial, North America, for the Patriot Mutual Insurance Company, is no exception. What she’d like to do is ease back and celebrate the fact that her beloved and long-suffering New York Giants have made the playoffs.

Schultson might be able to keep an eye on the game this weekend, but she’s also got plenty of weather events to keep her attention on this Friday afternoon. For one, headache already, a big blustery Nor’easter has skirted the Carolinas and is sluggishly, menacingly, making its way toward the Northeast.

It’s not the speed of the storm that has Schultson worried. It’s the storm’s volume and its potential to push millions of gallons of icy sea water into Lower Manhattan and beyond that is making her uneasy.

Patriot’s commercial portfolio has a sizable concentration of office buildings and other assets in Manhattan worth a total insured value in the hundreds of millions. But the exposures don’t end there. The insurer also has accumulated risks in Boston, Rochester and Buffalo. The portfolio in those cities includes not just office space but some retail and residential mixed-used policies.

Adding to Schultson’s never ending list of worries is that a brutal cold front is moving down from Canada. It’s projected to cast temperatures in the single digits over much of New York State and New England. A heavy load of the white stuff is also forecast.