Wood Industry

The wood manufacturing industry's rising insurance premiums are driven by factors such as catastrophic claims, reduced insurer competition, and increased rebuilding costs. Learn how your business  adopt strategies to improve your risk profiles, making your business more attractive to insurers and securing better rates.

Understanding the Wood Industry

Strategies for Attracting Insurers and Reducing Premiums in Wood Product Manufacturing

I had the privilege of speaking at both the Hardwood Manufacturers Association at their 2016 National Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Wood Products Manufacturing Association at their 2016 Annual Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.

The wood manufacturing industry has been facing substantially increasing insurance premiums due to a combination of multiple large, catastrophic claims and a significant reduction in the number of insurance companies willing to provide insurance policies to them.  Many of the members expressed to me that they had seen their premiums double or triple despite the fact they may have never had a claim.  With the members being crushed by their insurance costs, members were asked for a clear way to help reduce their premiums since obtaining insurance quotes was not really working for them.

As competition between insurance companies had been significantly reduced, the members needed to have a plan as to how to achieve results and go beyond just trying to get quotes.  After speaking with several members in preparation of the workshop, the members wanted to have a better an understanding as to how insurance companies price their insurance policies, a better understanding of the insurance system, but ultimately, they wanted to know how to make their organization more attractive to the remaining few insurance companies so that they could earn better rates and slash their premiums.

The Hardwood Conference workshop was the basis, or inspiration, of my latest book, the Laws 10 of Insurance Attraction, which is an expanded compilation of everything touched on in that workshop as well as many, many ideas and concepts that there was not enough time to address.

The Wood Products Conference workshop was focused on helping members to understand what happens after a catastrophe, and why so many of their fellow members have not been able to reopen following a disaster, and despite the fact that they had insurance!  We went through the process that Ken Clifton of Clifton Custom Furniture Industries experienced before and after their April 4th, 2014 devastating fire that destroyed their entire business.  We explored how they were the only 1 of the 5 WPMA members to reopen following that level of a catastrophe in the past 4 years. Odds are that over 50% of businesses will either not reopen or will close within 3 years of reopening is the basis of my upcoming book, Insured to Fail, which a preview is included in the Laws of Insurance Attraction. Read more and watch the video in Disaster Survivors.

Premium Reducation in Action

David Leng’s presentation at the Hardwood Manufacturers Association 2016 National Conference and Expo, Improving your Risk Profile to Slash your Rates, provided immediate take-home value to everyone in attendance. The presentation was insightful, well organized and very thorough. 

Members surveyed felt the session responded directly to their dilemma of increasing insurance premiums and decreasing coverage.  They walked out the door with ideas for manageable solutions to control their rising premiums. I personally was impressed that David spent time prior to the session acquainting himself with members of our Association, making sure his material was indeed focused to their needs. It was spot-on. 

We will continue to collaborate with David regarding our members’ concerns with property insurance and Workers’ Compensation costs.

Linda Jovanovich, Executive Vice President

Hardwood Manufacturers Association

It was a pleasure to work with David Leng as one of the primary speakers for our recently held Annual Meeting. In addition to being incredibly knowledgeable about what wood products manufacturers require to properly insure their business and manage their risks, David also understands the industry which is critical to helping companies remain in business should they suffer a major loss. 

David was well received and has already helped a number of members.

We would be more than happy to have David address our members at a future meeting.

 Philip Bibeau, Executive Director
 Wood Products Manufactures Association

Download FREE Resources for the Wood Industry

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The Wood Products Industry was an inspiration in TWO Best-Selling Books and one Disaster Survivor Story!

Get the First 2 Chapters FREE of this Amazon #1 Best Seller

Download the book to learn how you can protect your business before disaster strikes. Access 6 years of research and interviewing 86 Businesses that failed to reopen or closed within three years. 

Get the First 2 Chapters FREE of this Amazon #1 Best Seller

Download the book and find out how to stop gambling as the way to reduce your insurance premiums, and learn how to put yourself in a winning position where you ultimately control the game.


Don't Just Take Our Word for It! Real Businesses, Real Results

  • Elk Air
    David, I just can't thank you enough to finding and returning to us the $27,438 in overcharges from our last two years of audits.  I only wish we had been allowed to go back to the prior years to recover money.  More importantly, you provided us with a process so that we can avoid being overcharged in the future by the insurance companies.
    Ralph Kemp - President
    Elk Air Conditioning
  • CHarper
    I just cannot thank you enough for helping us to take control of our work comp.  In addition to making my life easier by helping to manage our claims, your team helped us create a very strong safety culture.  Our injuries are down significantly, but more importantly, you helped reduce our work comp premium by over $80,000 a year.
    Lori Bodnar – HR Director
    C Harper Automotive Group
  • Odyssey Communications

    David, you and your East Coast Risk Management team blew us away. First, your team recovered over $42,000 in overcharges that my agent allowed to happen. Second, over the next 7 months you overhauled our safety programs and hiring process. Your injury management team minimized a potentially uncontrollable and ugly claim which would have cost us tens of thousands of dollars in additional premium and rehiring costs. Third, your negotiations with our insurance company resulted in an additional $49,387 (44%) reduction in my workers compensation renewal premium. We figure you have added over $100,000 to our bottom line in just 1 year. Thanks!!!!

    Alex Yawny - CEO
    Odyssey Communications
  • Siegel & Jennings
    Throughout David’s career he has always been on the forefront of thinking. His understanding of insurance and specifically workers' compensation allow him to see things and establish practices that others eventually follow. David takes an entrepreneurial approach to problem solving resulting in both savings and added protection for his customers.
    J. Kieran Jennings, Esq. - Managing Partner
    Siegel Jennings
  • Kasto
    I first became acquainted with David’s knowledge of Workers’ Compensation when I attended a seminar in 2007. I took the opportunity to meet with David to discuss better ways we could handle not only our Work Comp claims, but how we needed to drastically overhaul our HR processes. The Benefits have been multitude. I have great confidence in ultimately can make a company more profitable.
    Colleen Maize - HR Director
    Kasto, Inc.
  • Gottlieb
    9 months ago I hired Duncan and their East Coast Risk Management to implement their Risk Solutions Program. As a result, I just saved $57,494 on my insurance renewal - That's 42%. Duncan met with me and my employees, toured my facility and put together an aggressive Risk Solutions Business Plan. They started implementing immediately and are in our plant several times each and every month.
    Robert Gottlieb - CEO
    Gottlieb, Inc
  • Jet Net
    David Leng is very knowledgeable about Workers’ Compensation and a pleasure to work with. His knowledge allowed our company to reduce its Workers’ Compensation premiums by almost 55%.
    Mike Spitznagel - CFO
    JetNet Corporation
  • Bowser Automotive
    Working with Duncan we were able to enhance the safety culture in our organization and reduced our Workers’ Compensation costs by over $300,000 a year.
    Gary Bowser, II, President
    Bowser Automotive Group
  • Duda Cable
    Duncan found that my experience modifier was WRONG!!!!  Not one of over a dozen plus agents that I spoke to previously saw that!  They were able to get my experience modifier corrected, and force my insurance companies to return over $86,000 to me! They leveraged what safety changes they implemented and obtain an insurance policy at our renewal that was over $100,000 lower. In a span of 4 months, they put almost $200,000 back in my pocket!
    Mark Duda - President
    Duda Cable Construction

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