Forensic Accounting Experience

The call no one ever wants to get reached me at 8 am on a beautiful October Sunday morning. Our VP of Operations was calling to tell me that our main factory in New York was on fire and would probably be lost. This call came just three months after an explosion at our Ohio plant shut down about 80% of that plant's milling capacity for the summer. 

My family and I were just preparing to head home from a long weekend visiting my brother in Bethesda and while the drive back to Buffalo wasn't the longest 7 hours of my life, it was probably in the top ten. Throughout the day I received update calls from the VP of Ops and I kept wondering how bad it was and what we would have to do to recover. This was a challenging time for the business because some of our customer business was slowing down; the 2008 financial crisis was just starting to unravel and LIBOR appeared to be on the express elevator to infinity. 

Luckily, no one was hurt in the fire but several of the factory's buildings were a total loss. 

We were fortunate too because we had great employees, a strong management team and owners that were supportive and committed to rebuilding. In addition, we had 3 other plants to supply product, a loyal base of customers and suppliers and we were well-capitalized by lenders with an interest to help us rebound. 

These were all positive factors which helped us in our challenge to rebuild and get reimbursed for the loss from our insurance company. 

A few days after the fire, our CEO suggested that I engage a Forensic Accountant to help me with the process of handling the insurance claim. Initially, I was put off by this idea because I believed that I could handle the project with my staff. It soon became apparent, however, that engaging a Forensic Accountant was a terrific idea and it helped us to maximize our loss recovery from the insurance company.

I have lived through the nightmare of having to recover and rebuild from a devastating loss. I was lucky to be surrounded by good people and to work for a company that was strong financially. The process and delays that we experienced in order to get reimbursed by the insurance company could have put a lesser company out of business. Time, complexity, and delays are an insurance company's friend and a loss victim's enemy!

Get the full benefit of my experience and knowledge of recovering from explosions, fires and product liability issues by utilizing my Forensic Accounting skills for your company.