EIG: What brought you to Eastern Insurance Group?

Economic uncertainty continues to dog the global economy. The war in Ukraine has worsened an already fragmented supply chain while in the U.S., inflation is at a 40-year high with no clear sign of abating. Recession may be on the horizon—or, depending on who you ask, has already arrived. The simple fact is, most people are tightening their belts.

In the United States, every state except New Hampshire and Virginia requires drivers to carry an automobile insurance policy. Mandated coverage varies from state to state and can always be customized with options, but most basic auto policies include collision, bodily injury liability, personal injury protection, property damage liability, and comprehensive. Premiums—typically paid monthly, semiannually, or annually—are based on various risk factors, including age, marital status, credit history, vehicle type and driving history.

Workers’ Compensation insurance (“workers’ comp”) covers the cost of medical bills and lost wages when employees are injured or sickened at work. Nearly every state requires businesses with one or more employees to carry it. Workers’ comp is a crucial part of every employer’s strategy for keeping employees safe when they are on the job, even as the definition of “on the job” is changing. Long before the pandemic pushed it to the mainstream, remote work among white collar workers was on the rise.

What brought you to Eastern Insurance?

The summer of 2022 may see the first boom in destination travel since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many individuals and families have been stockpiling vacation funds for two years and now as restrictions lift and anxieties ease, find themselves eager to embark on luxury vacations. At the same time inflation is on the rise, meaning that the cost of travel today has eclipsed similar costs in 2019—the last summer during which travelers could move about the world unencumbered.

Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, many medical appointments in the U.S. have been conducted though the online process called Telehealth which allows doctors and other healthcare providers to treat and prescribe medication for patients online. The new platform thrived because a number of geographic and other Federal waivers were swiftly implemented to make it so.

Homeowners who shepherded construction projects during the last couple of years faced skyrocketing material and labor costs—a persistent challenge that appears to be lingering into 2022. In fact, in March, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported that construction materials prices have risen 8% since the start of January.

From tax years 2015 through 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) opted not to assess penalties on Affordable Care Act (ACA) forms filed with mistakes so long as employers demonstrated “good faith” compliance efforts.

In April 2020 when the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic erupted, the U.S. shed nearly 21 million jobs. Analysts at the time forecasted a difficult climb back - yet two years later the biggest workforce challenge facing the U.S. economy is not joblessness, but persistent labor shortages that cut across market sectors. In fact, The U.S.