Conquering the Cyclical Beast

After 20 years of business, the mortgage is paid off.

For Tom DeLong, founder of DeLong & Associates in Prince Edward Island, this is a big deal.

“I plan to have a big mortgage burning event with all the staff this summer,” DeLong muses. “We’ll be glad to have the building free and clear.”

The company has been through some tough times, as many independent adjusting companies can attest to.

Business was booming when DeLong went out on his own in 1985, but the bubble burst in 1993 when insurance companies amalgamated, staff offices opened, and national deals were made that others had no control over, he points out. While a few things changed within his company, DeLong was not about to give up.

Like many adjusters, DeLong fell into adjusting. He was in a motor vehicle accident and while in the hospital was interviewed by an adjuster. That adjuster offered DeLong, then 17, a job. Over the next 12 years, DeLong worked as both an independent adjuster and a staff adjuster — learning what insurers expected from an adjuster and developing a rapport with brokers across P. E. I.

A partnership was formed

In 1985, DeLong kept bumping into Gordon MacDougall who was running B. E. MacKay Adjusters based out of Summerside, P. E. I. The two decided to pair up, with DeLong looking after Charlottetown and the eastern end of the province and MacDougall checking after Summerside and the western end. With that, a small fledgling adjusting company had turned into a two-office operation.

Two years later, DeLong built an office building, which he currently still runs the company out of and is four payments away (as of press time) from owning outright.

At the company’s busiest between 1991 and 1992, there were 14 people who worked for the company. But then the company was forced to downsize. MacDougall was getting ready to retire, and, as a promise to the original founder of B. E. Mackay Adjusters, the company name needed to retire as well.

Forced downsizing

Over the next few years, an acquisition plan was put together, and MacDougall, while no longer handling claims, did provide insight and advice. In 1998, B. E. MacKay Adjusters officially became DeLong & Associates.

We have never been able to return to those busy years, as the industry continues to be a very cyclical beast,” DeLong notes.

Further hits

In 2005, the business took a substantial hit when regulations were changed to allow non-residents of P. E. I to operate as an adjuster in the province. DeLong notes that prior to Aug. 1, 2005, one had to be a resident in order to operate as an adjuster — there were 51 resident licenses in place at that time. DeLong adds that according to the office of the superintendent there are 176 nonresident licenses and 43 resident ones in place today.

This was the second blow in two years for the company, the first one hitting when the minor injury cap came into effect in P. E. I. The business took a substantial hit in claims volumes, especially with regards to minor claims and DeLong, unfortunately, says he does not see those types of claims returning in significant numbers. This has impacted the ability to pay for training opportunities that existed in the earlier years of the company. As the senior adjusters near retirement, the company will have to seek out experienced staff, which will prove difficult as the entire industry is affected by a shortage of quality staff.

DeLong & Associates has added an administrative assistant in the last year and she is being encouraged and supported in her pursuit of the CIP designation. There are also a few “islanders” that are currently working elsewhere that might be interested in coming home in the future, DeLong says, but without a volume of smaller claims for trainees to cut their teeth on, it will be difficult to afford any substantial growth plans.

Keep on moving forward

“We have just tightened our belts and do the best job we can on the claims we do get,” DeLong says. “Business is coming back, and I believe that insurers may be finding that, for the number of claims there is on this island of 135,000 people, licensing ever-changing staff isn’t worth it. I also sense that insurers will more quickly hand out their out of province claims when in-house staff get overloaded — after all, who knows the lay of the land best but a resident.” But through the good times and the bad ones, the staff has been the backbone of the company, DeLong says.

There are still two offices for DeLong & Associates, despite the cutbacks — one in Summerside and one in Charlottetown.

At the Summerside office, clients can find Lorena Sonier who specializes in automobile B. I. and A. B. claims in the western end of the province, her new administrative assistant Renee Coughlin, and Don Crawford who covers all types of losses across the province.

In the Charlottetown office, one will meet Peter Hammill, Kim Stewart, Jennifer McWilliams, Tom and Linda DeLong. The staff lives and breathes the philosophy of strong customer service and friendly down home business etiquette. According to DeLong, they identify with the company logo: D. A. I. — Dependability, Accountability and Integrity.

They are proud of the services it provides to insurers, brokers and the insuring public. “We see ourselves as the key in the claim process, whether it’s the insured, claimant, body shop, restoration contractor or rental company,” DeLong says. “Without the right key, all you get is frustration. The term ‘utmost good faith’ is always present in our thoughts and actions.”

Small company privileges

There are definite benefits to being a small company, including a strong sense of family, input from all staff on important decisions, flexibility for personal commitments and the ability to deal quickly with issues face-to-face.

The company strives to keep pace and in some cases has even been at the leading edge of technology. By 1991 the company was fully computerized, and has since become the second company in Canada to implement the “Venue” claims management system.

“Keeping up with today’s technology is very expensive for a small firm, but it is priceless in maintaining one’s position in the marketplace,” DeLong says.

Not only is DeLong & Associates a member of the CIAA, but DeLong is himself a past president of the New Brunswick/P. E. I chapter.

“As a member of the CIAA, we value the code of ethics and privacy code that our association abides by,” DeLong says. “We take advantage of the insurance program and the educational opportunities that arise. But, by far, it is the people within our association that make it worthwhile. The friendships and knowledge that are shared at these events (the national conferences) lasts a lifetime.”