Berg Insurance Agency loves to come up with resolutions for our readers each year for the New Year. We promise that they don’t involve gym memberships or fewer carbs, so read on!

1. Increase Your Insurance Budget. If you aren’t aware, there’s a bit of an insurance crisis going on in California. While CAI CLAC and the insurance task force are working hard on solutions, great things take time. While we wait, premiums are going up, up, up. I can’t tell you how many 2024 budgets I have looked at where the member assessments and insurance budget were the same or lower than the previous year. With the cost of pretty much everything, let alone the skyrocketing insurance rates, going up, I don’t understand how this is going to work. But then, math isn’t my strong suit. 🤷🏻‍♀️

2. Education for Board Members. Maybe if the board members were better educated on running their community association, there wouldn’t be as much push-back when the managers recommend assessment increases. There are so many educational options available for board members, including a Board Member Certificate through CAI. Many chapters offer this course virtually, and many business partners would likely contribute to the tuition fee (if there is one).

3. Aging infrastructures. If your community is over 25 years old, this is a subject you are going to need to become familiar with over the next year. Insurance carriers are being more selective when looking at applications, and if your plumbing, electrical, HVAC or roof have not been updated recently, you may be declined or non-renewed. Even if these items are the maintenance responsibility of the unit owner, you will likely still need the information. See our previous blog post for more information HERE.

4. Change Your Insurance Renewal Date From 1/1. Are you tired of trying to chase down vacationing board members to get signatures on renewals over the holidays? Wouldn’t it be great if you actually knew what the insurance premium was going to be for the next year before you created your budget? 🤯 Change your renewal date to a more convenient time of year! I can hear you now “You can DO that???” Yes. Yes, you can.

5. Proper Care and Feeding of your Business Partners. Recently, a group of businesses partners got together to host an experience for a select few of their manager clients. They got RSVP’s so they knew who could make it, arranged the date and time with the experience provider, and pre-paid for the event and food. Over half of the managers no-showed. While we understand that emergencies happen, please know that a lot of effort and money go into events like this. This topic has come up in discussion with business partners frequently lately as it is becoming more and more common. We love showing our appreciation to our clients. However, we would rather you RSVP “no” if you know you can’t get away from the office. Our feelings won’t be hurt, we promise. But if you just don’t show up, we 1) get worried like mothers whose kids aren’t responding to text messages and 2) take a hit to our budget which doesn’t feel good for anyone. If you get an invite, think before you respond, and only say yes if you truly believe you will make it to the event. Your business partners will appreciate your honesty and thank you for it!

Anyone have anything to add? We would love to hear from you!

Terri Guest, CIRMS, CMCA, EBP, is the Northern California Senior Sales and Marketing Representative for Berg Insurance Agency and can be reached at Terri@BergInsurance.com.