Risk Management Minute with Paul Lessila

Paul Lessila changes the topic in this episode. Paul discusses how he “rekindles the batteries,” which he does by fishing. He shares some fishing tips including:

An area that is worked on quite a bit and is important for business owners is workers compensation. You must return someone to work within 3 days of the accident. This is just the state of Wisconsin – it’s different from state to state. If the employee is returned within this time frame, you’ll receive a 70% discount on your premium from the amount of money that was paid out on your claim.

The basics of workers compensation is that the more claims you have, the more your premium is going to be because of your MOD. Your MOD is your multiplier. Not all businesses get a MOD, usually because your premium is too low. If you don’t have good claims, your MOD could go up. It’s based on three years of claims. Your MOD is a multiplier and is affected based on your claims.

Paul believes in having a good balance in life – family, faith, and work. He has been married about 20 years and his kids are 16, 13, and 11. As he’s gotten older, he finds the different generations interesting, and gives his take on each of those and their views based on the generation.

Paul is also an insurance agent, along with a small business owner. Paul deals with many policies and issues on a day-to-day basis. He considers himself a generalist, with clients across various industries including: manufacturers, construction, and healthcare. His main focus is education including public and private schools. The education focus requires a certain knowledge and expertise to be able to properly deal with their cases. Paul’s other focus is the healthcare area – senior care and assisted living.

As a CPA, Paul was an auditor in the public and private sector, banking, manufacturing. He was really a generalist. He did that for about 6 years until he was funneled out. He wanted to get into the private sector and make some history. Paul mainly dealt audits and reviews.

Paul is a CPA for the healthcare business that he owns and manages. As a Certified Public Accountant, his wife runs the operations dealing with speech therapy, physical, therapy, and occupational therapy and some nursing. Senior care is the main target. Some work is also done in workers’ compensation and return-to-work. Evaluations are done, exercise programs are done, and some post and pre-employment screens.

The Risk Management Minute videos series will cover general information from tax to business philosophy, running a business, and other topics. Time will also be spent on topics dealing with the healthcare industry, insurance, and education – challenges in public and private schools.

This is the first video in a new series by R&R Insurance knowledgebroker Paul Lesslia. The videos will provide you with valuable information about Risk Management and Insurance.