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Property Damage After Extended Drought

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Storms after a drought lead to property claims.

Storm systems are bringing rain to the Northeast after long periods without measurable precipitation. The map below from the U.S. Drought Monitor show that Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland are experiencing severe to extreme drought conditions

The storms are bringing much needed rain, but can lead to other problems for homeowners. After a long drought the soil shrinks around the foundation. This can cause cracks, uneven settling and structural issues. Other potential problems are possible damage to exterior walls, driveways, sidewalks. A lack of moisture also can damage pipes as the ground shifts due to a lack of moisture.

Trees can be more susceptible to valling or breaking branches due to the lack of water. This can potentially damage roofs or other structures on the property.

The dry conditions can also compromise a roof. A storm after a period of drought can cause leaks and other damage to the roof.

Key points about drought related home damage

  • Foundation cracks – Gaps are created when soil pulls away from the foundation, causing cracks.
  • Falling trees or branches – A lack of water can compromise the health of a tree
  • Uneven floors – Receding soil can cause the foundation to settle unevenly, resulting in sloping floors.
  • Cracked exterior walls – Brick, stucco, or siding can crack from a shifting foundation
  • Damaged pipes – Leaks and breaks are caused by pressure from the shifting soil
  • Cracked driveways and patios – These concrete surfaces also can me damaged by foundation issues.

What to do?

  • Assess tree damage – consider contacting an aborist to address any potential hazards
  • Regularly check for cracks in the foundation, walls, or floors.
  • Consult professionals – if you suspect a structural engineer or foundation specialist

Sources

COVID-19 Business Interruption Claims Adjusters

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Curley Adjustment Bureau has proudly been serving Insurance Companies and self-insureds since 1933.  The company’s founding principle was to provide courteous, prompt, and effective professional claim service on behalf of the insurance industry.  Four family generations and nearly 90 years later, Curley Adjustment Bureau still relies on this very same mission statement to foster continued growth and success for itself and its insurance and other business partners, within the ever-changing insurance industry.

The COVID-19 pandemic may cause an increase in Business Interruption claims. Business Interruption policies are normally purchased as part of a full commercial general liability insurance package. In the current landscape other factors may come into play. New Jersey and Ohio legislatures have introduced bills requiring insurers offering business interruption insurance to cover losses attributable to viruses and pandemics. New York is also considering such legislation. On March 18, 2020, members of the United States House of Representatives urged four major insurance trade organizations to cover business interruption claims arising from COVID-19.

THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR YOU

The knowledgeable and experienced adjusters at Curley Adjustment Bureau are prepared to provide your company with the expertise you need, Business Interruption claims are complicated, let our experience work for you.

 

More Information
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/business-interruption-insurance-coverage-and-covid-19
https://www.eidebailly.com/insights/articles/2020/3/covid-19-and-business-interruption-insurance

 

Curley Adjustment COVID-19 response

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Dear Trusted Clients and Friends:

First & foremost we hope you are all doing well and taking care of yourselves, your families and your friends.

We would like to take a moment to let you know that we are doing everything possible to remain fully operational; ready willing and able, as always, to handle any and all of your claims needs.  We have initiated our Business Continuity Plan. In order to ensure service to our clients, we have put in place the following changes effective immediately.

  • Business Continuity Plan:  Curley Adjustment Bureau maintains a comprehensive Business Continuity Plan in place to ensure all services to our clients. These plans were developed to cover any contingency that might interrupt day-to-day business and have been updated to account for new challenges caused by COVID-19.

 

  • Remote Workforce: Our employees are equipped to work remotely and have been encouraged to do so as a precautions. Effective today, in an effort to avoid crowds and practice social distancing to prevent the further spread of the virus, Curley is allowing our home office employees to work remotely.

All of our adjusters are working strictly from their home offices. In addition, our outside adjusters have been provided with all of the most up to date information from the CDC and local authorities along with personal protective devices, gloves and sanitizer.  Adjusters have been instructed to do everything possible to protect the health of everyone they come into contact with as well as themselves.

 

  • Customer Needs and Expectations: We are continuously updating our Business Continuity Plan according to our clients’ need and expectations. We are meeting the expectations to minimize business interruption but also protect the health and safety of our employees and your insureds.

 

We also have an extensive roster of CAT adjusters who can be called upon if needed.  Our claims management system is web based with various redundant back-ups.  We will all be working through this crisis safely and securely.

Our responsibility to you has not changed, we will continue to provide you with uninterrupted service during this difficult time. Our phones, emails and systems have been realigned to continue to service your needs as you have come to expect from us.  Thank you for being a valuable client and partner of our Company.

If you have any concerns, please call or email us.

 

Kind regards,

Everyone at Curley Adjustment Bureau, Inc.

888-557-3717

contact@curleyadjustment.com

CURLEY ADDS TO ALREADY STRONG TEAM OF ADJUSTERS

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Curley Adjustment Bureau is proud to announce the addition of two new adjusters to our Claims Staff. Chelsey McMahon (Pittsburgh) and Jennifer Moore (Williamsport) have already proven to be valuable assets to our firm. We pride ourselves on hiring only top quality Claims Adjusters and are always looking to add to our already impressive staff – Chelsey & Jen are no exception!  Some of you may have already had the pleasure of working with Chelsey or Jennifer, but if not we’d like to provide a brief introduction.

First we’d like to introduce Chelsey McMahon who started at Curley this past summer as a multi-lines adjuster in the Pittsburgh area. She has been in the business 10+ years and worked for both Travelers and Liberty Mutual Insurance.  Chelsey’s degree is from Penn State University (Erie) where she majored in Business Economics.  You can reach Chelsey on extension 2040 by dialing our 888-557-3717 number. Her email is chelseym@curleyadjustment.com.

Another big “welcome aboard” to Jennifer Moore. Jennifer is a more recent hire and has enthusiastically taken on new challenges and a broad service area right off the bat.  Jennifer is an experienced multi-line adjuster that comes to us after over 20 years at State Farm.  Previously, Jennifer earned a Bachelors in Business Administration at Strayer University. She is based in Williamsport, PA but will also be handling claims for our Altoona, Erie, Harrisburg, Reading and Scranton offices.  Jennifer can be reached at 888-557-3717 extension 2030. Her email is jenniferm@curleyadjustment.com.

We are extremely fortunate both Jennifer and Chelsey chose to bring their talents to Curley!  Now our good fortune can also be yours!!  If you have any questions at all or would like additional information on any of our adjusters, please feel free to contact us at your convenience!

Frank Marx – President & CEO          215-627-5900 ext. 2007   frankm@curleyadjustment.com

Pete Kulaski – VP Operations             215-627-5900 ext. 2012    petek@curleyadjustment.com

Jeff Stauts – Claims Manager             215-627-5900 ext. 2016    jeffs@curleyadjustment.com

CURLEY ADJUSTMENT BUREAU CELEBRATES ITS 85TH ANNIVERSARY

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Curley Adjustment Bureau wishes to announce its 85th Anniversary as a leading Independent Insurance Adjusting firm and Third Party Administrator.

Curley Adjustment Bureau, Inc. is an independent adjusting organization and Third Party Administrator founded in 1933 by the late James N. Curley and it is one of the oldest adjusting firms in the country, operating under the same family management.

Frank Marx, Grandson of the founder, and president of Curley said, “As we celebrate our 85th year in business we are grateful to our clients for allowing us to be of service and to our dedicated staff that made this anniversary possible”. He went on to say “We are proud of the work of our current employees, but we also acknowledge that our longevity is a credit to all of those that helped the company thrive for the past 85 years.”

The company’s founding principle was to provide courteous, prompt, and effective professional claim service on behalf of the insurance industry.  Three family generations and eighty-five years later, Curley Adjustment Bureau still relies on this very same mission statement to foster continued growth and success for itself and its insurance and other business partners, within the ever-changing insurance industry.

The best practices supported by Curley Adjustment Bureau stress the importance of treating all parties with great care and respect. To that end we consistently make every effort to go above and beyond in our claims handling.  Claims Manager, Jeff Stauts adds “We will always strive to provide an exceptionally high degree of service to make sure that each party comes away with an overwhelming positive attitude toward our clients”

Here at Curley Adjustment Bureau, we are proud to be experts at claims handling and administration. We employ, train and promote an elite group of claims professionals. Our adjusters average twenty years of experience – Let Our Experience Work for You.

Be sure to view our website for detailed information on our company and to submit a claim.  Yes, Take Me There!

 

Our Claims Administration is headquartered in our Philadelphia Home Office. Our seventeen branch offices are strategically located throughout the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. We are able to provide claims service in the New York metropolitan area and the eastern shore & northern Maryland. As well as the eastern side of Ohio.

SUBMIT A LOSS
contact@curleyadjustment.com
Toll Free: 888.557.3717
Phone:     215.627.5900
Fax:         888.557.3717
President Vice President
Frank Marx Pete Kulaski
frankm@curleyadjustmetn.com petek@curleyadjustment.com
215.627.5900 x2007 215.627.5900 x2012
Claims Manager I.T. Director
Jeff Stauts Joe Rourke
jeffs@curleyadjustment.com joer@curleyadjustment.com
215.627.5900 x2016 215.627.5900 x2011

 

Beware: SPAM Texts – Don’t fall for text scams to get your info

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There has been a rise if SPAM/phishing via text.  Known as Smishing (SMS phising)

Don’t give any information out to a message that you receive via text.  You will not be contacted by any reputable company via text where they ask for account information.

If it is a Curley email or phone account contact me.  If it is on a personal account, contact the company via phone.

See the article below for more information on this increasing security threat.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/dont-fall-text-scams-asking-passwords-213342817.html

 

Don’t fall for these text scams asking for your passwords

 Daniel Howley

If you’ve got a phone, you’ve probably received a spam text. Most of the time they’re from bar contests you drunkenly signed up for, and forgot about long ago. No? Just me? Interesting.

Either way, we all get spam. But there’s a special form of spam text that cybercriminals use to trick hapless victims into willfully giving up everything from their phone number to their Social Security number.

It’s easy to fall for these traps, but there are a few things you can do to avoid becoming a victim.

Smishing for info

Smishing, or SMS phishing, scams are similar to your standard email phishing scam, with the exception that rather than email, the scammer attempts to trick the prospective victim via a text message sent to their phone rather than an email.

It’s actually an even more duplicitous way of scamming victims. That’s because text messages have a greater sense of urgency than emails. After all, if you receive a text from someone it has to be important.

When you get a smishing text, you’ll likely see something asking you to call a phone number, or, even worse, click a link to address an issue by providing your bank account, smartphone data plan or some other form of highly personal information.

A classic example of a smishing attempt. The link has been blurred to prevent others from visiting it.

 

Calling a phone number could result in someone talking you into giving up your Social Security number, banking information or website login information. Click on a link in your text message and it could take you to a fraudulent website meant to make you think it’s from something like your bank, wireless service provider or sometimes the Internal Revenue Service.

Clicking that link alone may saddle you with malware on your smartphone, but if you actually enter your personal information on such a site, you could be turning it over to criminals who can then take over your private accounts.

Say, for example, you give your login information for your smartphone data carrier. A criminal could then use that to capture your account and steal your phone number. They could then use that to bypass other forms of security you use, like text message-based and two-factor authentication, to protect your online accounts.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that if someone steals your information, they can take full control over some of your most private accounts.

How to avoid smishing

The best way to avoid smishing scams is to simply ignore any texts you get from numbers you don’t recognize. But some scammers can spoof their numbers to appear as though the messages are coming from numbers you might recognize. So, if you want to be especially safe, simply avoid opening any links sent to you that ask for your login information. And if you’re told to call a number, don’t do it.

If you think you’ve received a fraudulent text or call, contact your wireless carrier, or the institution the person on the other end of the line claims to represent. From there you can see if you’re being tricked, or you’ve got an actual issue. But in reality, chances are, it’s a scam.

If you do happen to open a link sent to you via text message, be sure to download an anti-malware app for your smartphone and run it immediately to sniff out any threats that you may have inadvertently downloaded to your handset.

So remain vigilant. And, above all, take a second before opening that next text.

Need an Appraiser? Appraisals and Umpires

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needanappraiser

 

Curley Adjustment Bureau has a team of experienced property adjusters that are qualified to act as an appraiser on your behalf. Our adjusters average have an average of 20 years in assessing and determining damages.

Put our highly trained, professional adjusters to work for you. Our firm has been a respected member of this industry for over 80 years with the founding principle to provide courteous, prompt and effective service for our clients. You will find our employees highly trained and dedicated to act in an ethical manner with high moral standards.

Curley Adjustment Bureau is the choice if you find yourself in a dispute over damages. Almost all property insurance policies contain a provision specifying “appraisal” as a means of resolving disputes over the amount of loss associated with a covered claim. Appraisal provides an efficient method for an insured and insurance company to resolve a dispute over the amount of a covered loss when both parties agreed about the existence of coverage.

 

Curley Adjustment Bureau, Inc. – Hurricane Matthew

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Curley Adjustment Bureau, Inc.

Hurricane Matthew is on track to hit the U.S. early next week. We wanted to take this time to let you know that Curley Adjustment Bureau has a proactive plan to be ready for your needs for any possible loss.

Like you, we wish for all to be safe during and after this storm, but it is prudent to be prepared.

We would like to use this time to distribute our new and updated Coverage Maps for Liability and Property.

Please send losses to contact@curleyadjustment.com

This is the most efficient address to use and we will assign to the nearest office and the appropriate adjuster.

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