Pub. 17 2020 Issue 1

Issue 1 • 2020 9 O V E R A C E N T U R Y : B U I L D I N G B E T T E R B A N K S — H E L P I N G N E W M E X I C O R E A L I Z E D R E A M S Allen Moss VP, Regional Business Development Allen joined Golden Eagle Insurance in October 2019 as a VP of Regional Business Development. He will primarily be consulting with lenders in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Allen is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point with a major in Mathematics. After grad- uating fromWest Point, Allen spent time at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, as an Infantry Officer. Following that assignment, Allen was selected to join the 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he served as the Reconnaissance Company Operations Officer. Allen currently resides in Hilliard, Ohio, and enjoys traveling, the outdoors, sports and reading. Allen.Moss@goldeneagle-insurance.com 1-800-461-9224 Ext. 1023 We are constantly looking for new ways to help community banks become more efficient while staying adequately protected. The novel coronavirus spreading throughout the world and our nation is harrowing. Doctors, nurses, caregivers, and local and national leaders are grappling with how best to face down this unseen adversary. Families have been forced into strained circumstances and make difficult choices daily. Employers must find ways to stay afloat while doing what they can for their employees. While there can be no doubt that this crisis will take a heavy toll upon our nation, I have confidence that we can band together as an American people and look back upon this trying time with pride in our efforts to weather this storm, as we have weathered so many others in the past. Com- munity banks will have a vital role to play in that effort. The community banking industry touches almost every facet of American life and is intimately tied to our fortunes as a nation. From enabling families to purchase a home or automo- bile to powering small business and agriculture, community banks are a mainstay of our nation’s success and provide a personal touch and sense of community along with local loan decisions that vastly improve the local economy and the expe- rience of the customer. As they enable Americans to live out their dreams, community banks also take on much of the risk associated with unforeseen events. Bill Jones founded Gold- en Eagle Insurance in 1995 on the principle of helping banks manage that risk through innovative blanket and lender-placed solutions and that remains our calling card to this day. Community banks have always wrestled with one main issue when it comes to tracking insurance on their loan collat- eral: staying properly protected at an affordable price. Since uninsured losses are rare, lenders rightfully try to minimize expenses and staff time spent on tracking insurance. How - ever, the risk of a large uninsured loss and the regulations dictating that loans be properly tracked lead to costs that are higher than desired. Those high costs include: • Employee pay, taxes and benefits. • Management time and expense. • System costs of tracking. • Postage and phone expense. • Letterhead and envelope costs for notification letters. • Training expense. The vast majority of customers have protection on their collateral at any given time. Thus, the tracking expenses above are being incurred for the sake of 1-2% of the portfolio. Blanket insurance can eliminate these high costs while still properly protecting the portfolio. Blanket insurance pro- vides the same type of protection that a lender-placed policy provides, and the coverage is superior to typical lender-placed insurance because it’s automatic. In addition to eliminating tracking, blanket insurance has become more attractive to many lenders because it easily passes regulatory examinations. When examining insurance procedures, regulators are primarily concerned with ensuring an institution is adequately protected. Regulators are very positive about blanket coverage since they know that it offers better protection than tracking and it eliminates the possibili- ty of human error. Perhaps one of the most valuable facets of blanket insur- ance is its ability to help improve relationships with borrow- ers. Blanket insurance eliminates negative interactions with customers because there is no need to contact a borrower in the event of an insurance lapse. Under a blanket policy, there are no contentious phone calls or letters to be sent, and no headache of placing and subsequently removing a lend- er-placed policy as a customer’s private policy lapses and is re- instated. Just as good fences make good neighbors, a blanket policy improves relationships through peace of mind. Through years of experience, Golden Eagle has continued to innovate and expand our lender-placed and blanket con- cepts to serve best the community banks who, in turn, serve their communities. Our blanket concepts can be applied to mortgage loans, including commercial portfolios, consumer portfolios, and even industrial or agricultural equipment. Our lender-placed products also improve lender-borrower rela- tionships with built-in features that eliminate unnecessary letters and interactions with borrowers and minimize false force-placements. We are constantly looking for new ways to help community banks become more efficient while staying adequately protected. I hope it does not sound presumptuous to say that I, per- sonally, and our entire Golden Eagle team feel emotionally invested in the state of New Mexico. I was born and raised in Albuquerque and, though I have lived many places, I will always consider my home to be in the shadow of the Sand- ia Mountains. Though our company is new to the Land of Enchantment, the mission and mindset of community banks is one we know to be noble and essential to a verdant society and we take pride in helping community banks better serve their customers. As we all work to navigate the difficulties and successes that the next year places before us, Golden Eagle is excited to kindle new relationships and provide innovative solutions for New Mexico lenders. n