Is there anything more exciting than property insurance, property insurance adjusting, property insurance coverage, and property insurance law? Of course there is! Unless you are a complete dweeb, life is a lot more exciting than those things.

If you want to have some fun on Tuesdays, or you happen to be stuck working from home, or you really do have an interest in property insurance, I guarantee that you will be thrilled and excited about setting your calendar every Tuesday at 2 pm EST to a new show, “Tuesdays At Two With Chip Merlin.”

I also guarantee you will learn a lot about property insurance which will help you if you are an adjuster, appraiser, public adjuster, claims manager, lawyer, insurance agent, risk manager, policyholder with a claim, contractor or a really nerdy person just seeking knowledge. You will be able to comment and ask questions. You can even try to stump me.

For those that show up to watch, you will also be able to get some written materials and reference materials—but you have to watch the show to get them. Do not be one of those lame people that say, “Chip, I could not watch the show, but can you send me your stuff?” No, you lose and the people that “tune in,” win.

The first topic next Tuesday at Two will be:

“Actual Cash Value, Replacement Cost and Depreciation of Labor”

Pretty exciting stuff, eh? I can already hear some of my West Coast buddies saying to each other, “Whoa bro, Chip should have this show at seven pm e-s-t so we could be in the proper frame of mind.”

I promise I will try to raise points I have learned and debated over my almost forty-years in this field. For example, can you depreciate an item that is going to be repaired versus replaced to arrive at actual cash value? That issue can raise considerable debate.

I was always taught that you were not to depreciate a repair. Insurance companies regularly argue the other way. What if I told you that older Insurance company claims manuals made by insurance company claims trainers actually taught their adjusters not to depreciate labor if part of the building or an item was going to be repaired? What would you think then?

For those of you who show up, I will share the material and instruction from one of the oldest property insurance carriers in the United States with just that information. Where else would you get this?

I bet a lot of insurance company claims managers trying to make their profit goals wish I were not around. If they were really looking out for their customers, they would be happy to learn another way to pay greater and correct indemnity—and fortunately, some upstanding ones are exactly that way.

See you next Tuesday at Two. Here is the link.

Thought For A Friday Afternoon

Nerds… the ‘nerd’ has never been precisely defined, thanks to the psychological complexity of the creature. The word has connotations of some level of intelligence. The typical nerd is a male with intelligence but no sense of giving it a manly face.
—Tom Wolfe