Talking with Charlene Betz

Underwriting Department, Home Office

How long have you been with the company? It will be nine years the end of January.

What did you do before you started working here? I worked in Louisiana at a bank in the trust department. I did the balancing and investing—buying and selling of mutual funds and stocks. I did that for 3 or 4 years, but I was at the bank (First National of Houma) for 17 years. Then, my children moved to Birmingham—all three of them. My oldest daughter married a boy whose family lived here. When my son graduated from college—he sent resumes everywhere and it just happened that the best job offer was here. Then, my other daughter’s husband transferred to Birmingham. All three of my children were here, so my husband and I decided we should move here too.

What’s your favorite part of your job? I just enjoy working. I like all of it.

What do you do in an average day? After coffee…Right now, we’re short-handed so I’m doing a lot of things that I normally don’t do. I do any requested loss runs as soon as I get here in the morning. I also do the assigned risk, but we don’t get those every day.

Okay, what exactly is an assigned risk? We do workers’ comp assigned risks. Assigned risk policies are basically a risk that no one will write. In Alabama, there is a pool of these risks through NCCI. The risks assigned are based on the premiums collected in the state. The risk could be a new company or it could be that they have had a lot of losses or they could be in a business with a naturally high risk. At the end of their policy, we send a renewal—if they want, they can stay with us, but assigned risk rates are higher than voluntary rates, so companies always try to get away from assigned risk status as quickly as they can.

What advice would you offer to someone just starting off in the insurance industry? Try to learn as much as you can. I knew nothing about insurance when I came here—start at the bottom and work your way up.

You’ve been in Alabama for nine years, but you still have family in Louisiana. How are your relatives doing after the hurricane? I’m from a family of 8. I have a sister in Houston and one in Virginia. My three sisters who live in Louisiana had damage, but it was minor. My two brothers have had a terrible time of it, though. My youngest brother had water and roof damage and his cabinets are falling off the walls. The mildew is horrible. His adjuster has come out, but he hasn’t heard anything. One sister who lived 6 blocks away from my youngest brother only had a little damage. Another brother has a house (that he rents out) and business in Arabi. Both the house and the business had large amounts of water over them (like 10 feet). His business, a needlepoint store, isn’t salvageable and he isn’t planning to reopen it. His home, in Meraux (not far from the Murphy Oil Refinery), was really hit hard. The water went above his top wall. Ceiling tiles were falling out because the water got so high. Insulation was falling out and it was black with mildew. He has five inches of gunk on the floor. The water blew the windows out on the lower floor. The good news is that the flood insurance has already settled with him. We’re fortunate that God took care of us and we are all well and alive.

I knew the destruction down there was horrible—you hear it on the news. You hear it from your family. But, when I saw the pictures, I was just sick. Some places still don’t have electricity. They still have sheriffs patrolling. But there are some good things happening, too. Businesses are starting to open up a little at a time. More traffic is getting through and life is slowly getting better.