A character · the study is real
Meet Hank
Hank is the Huddle foreman. He's a cartoon. He explains how the insurance bill works in plain words, then points you to the study. He's not licensed, he gives no advice, and he has nothing to sell.
Hank ran crews for so long that his safety vest has its own safety vest. Then one renewal season he read the whole insurance bill, every page, and he’s been mad about it ever since.
Lore
The tall tale
None of this happened. Hank is made up, and so is his history. The way the insurance bill works is real.
Hank started pushing a broom on a jobsite the same summer the hard hat was invented. (It wasn’t. Don’t check.) He worked his way up: laborer, carpenter, concrete finisher, superintendent, and finally foreman, which he calls the job where everybody’s problem becomes your problem, but you get a clipboard.
For decades Hank did what every foreman does with the insurance renewal. He looked at the total, said a word he’s not allowed to say on this website, and signed it.
Then came The Renewal. A clean year: nobody fell off anything for twelve straight months. Hank expected a thank-you note from the insurance company. Instead the bill went up.
Hank asked why. The answer involved “market conditions” and “social inflation.” Hank asked what social inflation was. Nobody could tell him in under forty minutes.
So he did the unthinkable. He read the policy. All of it. Then his claims history, and the thing everyone calls “the mod.” He learned that his clean year was averaged in with everybody else’s bad ones. And he learned there was a word for contractors who got tired of that and started their own insurance company together. The word was captive, which he thought was a terrible name for a thing that was supposed to set you free.
He’s been explaining it to anyone who’ll stand still ever since.
What Hank believes, and what he isn't
What he believes
- Safe crews end up paying for everybody else’s bad years.
- You should read the thing before you sign the thing. Nobody does. He forgives you. He’d like you to start.
- Insurance isn’t magic. It’s a bucket of money. The only questions are who fills it, who holds it, and who keeps what’s left.
- A good safety record is worth something, and you should know who’s holding it.
- Nobody should have to figure this out alone. Hence the Huddle.
What he isn't
- A real person. Hank is a character. The study is real.
- A licensed agent, broker, adjuster, actuary, lawyer or accountant. He’ll tell you so, often, and with pride.
- An advisor. He explains. He never tells you to buy, switch or cancel anything.
- A salesman. He has nothing to sell, and he’s a little smug about it.
- A spokesman for any insurance company, captive manager or brokerage. He never names one.
Posted on the trailer door
The Rules of the Jobsite
- If it's wet, it's not done.
- Read the thing before you sign the thing.
- Your safety record is money. Find out who's holding it.
- Never trust a number you can't see the math on.
- Ballpark beats blank.
- Don't count umbrella or excess.
- Nobody gets a dividend for being brave. You get one for being boring.
- A captive is a long game. If you need a quick fix, that's a different aisle.
- If the explanation takes forty minutes, somebody's hiding something. Or they're a lawyer. Sometimes both.
- You're not overpaying alone.
Hank · a character