UTICA — Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornados, fire — they are all classified as natural disasters. Add to this oil spills, terrorist attacks, and arson — they are examples of man-made disasters. To an organization or business that has sustained a disaster, who negotiates and expedites the claim and maximizes the financial recovery?

Enter Adjusters International (AI), a disaster-recovery consulting organization headquartered in Utica. Formed in 1985 by 13 regional insurance-adjusting companies with offices originally in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, and Puerto Rico, “the founders wanted to create a consortium of regional [insurance-adjuster] powerhouses to handle large disasters,” says Ronald A. Cuccaro, president and CEO of AI. “We wanted to maximize our opportunities and be able to handle Fortune 500 companies and other large entities … Today, Adjusters International [a C-corporation] includes seven insurance-adjuster companies which are all stockholders.”

The stockholders are the seven regional corporations: Adjusters International Colorado, Inc. (Denver), Adjusters International Corporation (Seattle), Globe Midwest Corporation (Detroit), Greenspan Adjusters International, Inc. (San Francisco), The Goodman-Gable-Gould Company (Rockville, Md.), The Greenspan Company (Los Angeles), and Basloe, Levin & Cuccaro (BLC – Utica). BLC was founded in 1908 by Frank Basloe, a local real-estate broker who helped his clients with insurance claims.

“Since 1985, we have served 25,000 clients,” says Cuccaro … “Our national reach includes 275 employees in 45 offices [two offices located in Hawaii and one in British Columbia]. AI headquarters employs 27 full time, of whom 24 live in Central New York. … The company also retains 160 who work part time on a project-basis. The concept of a consortium is not unlike what accounting firms do today when they affiliate with an international group of independent [entities]. The difference here is that the regional companies own all of the stock in the consortium.” AI is licensed in all 50 states.

Adjusters International shares space with BLC in a 25,000-square-foot building at 126 Business Park Drive in Utica. The original 10,000 feet was constructed in 1995 on 2.2 acres, and an additional 15,000 feet, which included a large training center, was added in 2006. BLC employs 32 full time, of whom 18 live in Central New York. BLC is a sub-S corporation; Cuccaro is the sole stockholder and also serves as BLC’s president and CEO.

“BLC offers its services through seven offices covering Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, northern Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, and some of Connecticut,” notes Stephen T. Surace, senior vice president and chief operating officer of BLC as well as the CFO of AI.

“In 1996, AI began competing against large engineering and consulting firms for RFPs (request-for-proposals) from public entities such as schools, states, municipalities, and not-for-profits for assistance with their recovery of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) disaster funding following presidentially declared disaster events,” says John W. Marini, a vice president and chief operating officer of AI. Marini joined AI in 1991. “We have responded to requests for help after hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Wilma, and most recently Sandy … We helped the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, [which] owned the World Trade Center, after 9/11. The state of Louisiana called us in to deal with the damages caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill resulting from the BP [British Petroleum] explosion in the Gulf [of Mexico]. And the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority turned to us when the ‘Big Dig’ tunnel in Boston collapsed.”

“In the FEMA model, AI is paid based on time and expenses. The insurance model is usually based on receiving a small percentage of the funds recovered,” says Surace, “although we may also be paid for time and expenses, as was the case consulting on the BP spill.” Marini adds that “… AI always has 180 personnel with a variety of specialties ready to respond just to a FEMA-related operation.

Marini contends that, “AI is the nation’s premier disaster-recovery consulting organization in the country.” To back up his claim, he points to “… our ability to respond to any problem anywhere. It doesn’t matter what the size or scope the job is. Further, we are the only agency that can handle FEMA in-house, without having to farm out any operations.” Surace points to “… the size of the AI network and the depth of its technical capacity and experience.” Cuccaro adds: “… AI helps its clients to get back to business as quickly as possible. No one else can do this as well.”

Cuccaro, 68, Marini, 52, and Surace, 38, are joined on the executive team by Jeffrey Shaw, 42, a company vice president who operates from an office in South Carolina and has been part of the organization for about 20 years. Shaw brings more than two decades of experience in disaster recovery and specializes in the FEMA Public Assistance Program. He has been actively involved in AI’s hurricane operations. His expertise includes dispute resolution and appeals.

“Our business model [at AI] works very well,” says Cucarro. “No one can afford to sustain a national staff to anticipate every disaster. Our regional offices blanket the country, allowing us to respond quickly and move resources to wherever they are needed … Our business is growing because people continue to build along coastal areas and where there are natural disasters. It’s growing because very few [entities] can handle large disasters. There is simply more property with exposure, along with more severe weather events, like rising sea levels.”

Cuccaro also points to the company’s ability to attract and retain seasoned employees as a key to AI’s success. “We have a very strong labor pool in the Utica area,” he says. “There are a number of retirees and engineers from firms that have downsized, along with project managers and estimators. These seasoned employees are critical to our success. This gives us tremendous depth in the organization … We [expend] a lot of effort on training our adjusters and consultants, including employing trainers on staff. All of the FEMA training is done internally … We have an advanced training center here in the Utica headquarters, and we also train in the field.”

Among his many duties, Cuccaro finds time to publish Adjusting Today, a technical publication on property-insurance claims with a distribution of 32,000 printed copies, and Disaster Recover Today (DRT), a technical newsletter that focuses on processes related to the FEMA Public Assistance Program. DRT enjoys a distribution of about 15,000 copies.

“We rely on a number of local vendors,” says Cucarro. “For our banking needs, we turn to NBT Bank. Our accounting firm is Firley, Moran, Freer & Eassa CPA, P.C. in Syracuse. Jerry Stack of the Hiscock firm [Hiscock & Barclay LLP] in Syracuse handles our business/tax legal matters. The company’s travel needs are handled by Adams Travel Bureau here in New Hartford, and for printing we turn to Brodock Press in Utica and Dupli in Syracuse. Telecommunications is furnished by Northland Communications in Utica.”

AI contends it is primed to dominate the insurance-adjusting marketplace nationwide and has the capabilities to follow U.S. companies overseas to aid in resolving foreign claims. The key is to remain focused on what the company does best. Marini summarizes this attitude when he says: “We don’t want to be what we’re not.”

Contact Poltenson at npoltenson@tmvbj.com

Consumer sentiment in upstate New York rose three points to 76.9 in June, according to the latest monthly survey from the Siena (College) Research Institute (SRI).

Upstate’s overall-sentiment index of 76.9 is a combination of the current-sentiment and future-sentiment components. Upstate’s current-sentiment index of 81.5 is up 1.5 points from May, while the future-sentiment level rose 3.9 points to 74, according to the SRI data.

The Upstate figure was 1.8 points below the statewide consumer-sentiment level of 78.7, which was up 1.5 points from April, SRI said.

New York’s consumer-sentiment index was 5.4 points lower than the figure for the entire nation of 84.1, which was down 0.4 points from May, as measured by the University of Michigan’s consumer-sentiment index.

For New York consumers, it’s a “very strange period where bad news is good news,” Douglas Lonnstrom, professor of statistics and finance at Siena College and SRI founding director, says in an interview.

In explaining his analysis, Lonnstrom says the national economy has been “weak” since 2008, meaning interest rates have been “incredibly low.”

In addition, the federal government has used a stimulus program to boost the economy, and energy prices have remained “relatively stable and low,” Lonnstrom adds.

He believes consumers and observers are viewing the weakened national economy as a chance to keep the interest rates and energy prices low.

Lonnstrom also contends some people believe the interest rates and energy prices will rise if the national economy expands again.

“The consumers almost see this negative news as being good for them because it’s keeping prices low,” Lonnstrom says.

And that feeling is reflected in the comparison of the sentiment data over the last five years.

When compared with the previous three years, the state’s overall-confidence sentiment of 78.7 is up 4.2 points from June 2012, up 3.8 points from June 2011, and has increased 15.3 points compared to June 2010, according to the SRI data. The sentiment index measured 52.6 in June 2008.

The overall, current, and future-sentiment indexes are up between 23 and 27 points compared to the same month in 2008, Lonnstrom says.

“People are feeling better right now than they have been,” he adds.

Besides determining consumer sentiment, SRI’s monthly survey also examines respondents’ plans for buying big-ticket items in the next six months.

In June, buying plans were up 4.5 points to 13.6 percent for cars and trucks; rose 4.5 points to 18.3 percent for computers; increased 2.8 points to 24.6 percent for furniture; inched up 0.2 points to 4.1 percent for homes; and rose 2 points to 19.6 percent for major-home improvements, according to the Siena data.

Gas and food prices

In SRI’s monthly analysis of gas and food prices, 68 percent of upstate respondents said the price of gas was having a serious impact on their monthly budgets, which is down from 69 percent in May and unchanged from the 68 percent figure in April.

In addition, 56 percent of statewide respondents indicated concern about the price of gas, down from 57 percent in May, according to SRI.

“Not a lot of movement … but certainly better than going up,” Lonnstrom says, noting that consumers have become accustomed to paying gas prices that are between $3 and $4 per gallon.

When asked about food prices, 69 percent of Upstate respondents indicated the price of groceries was having a serious impact on their finances, down from 71 percent in May. About 67 percent of statewide respondents expressed concern about their food bills, down from 68 percent in May.

SRI conducted its consumer-sentiment survey in May by random telephone calls to 800 New York residents over the age of 18.

As consumer sentiment is expressed as an index number developed after statistical calculations to a series of questions, “margin of error” does not apply, SRI says. Buying plans, which are listed as a percentage based on answers to specific questions, have a margin of error of 3.5 points, according to SRI.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com