God knows I feel like I’m just hitting my stride and building the kind of law firm I’ve dreamed of for a long time. Still, my friend and older contemporary, Ray Altieri, is having a retirement party today. Ray truly deserves to enjoy all the dreams he has for his journey. I feel fortunate to have been a small footnote to his success.
Eleven years ago I wrote a post, Ray Altieri becomes president of the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters:
Time flies. It seems like yesterday when Ray Altieri excitedly met me outside the entrance to the December 1992 National Association of Public Adjusters Mid-Year Meeting. Ray is Italian and very passionate about things that matter to him ̵
1; usually his family, work and the New York Yankees.That morning he was worried and upset. He asked if there was anything I could do to help the public adjust in Florida, where a representative from the Florida Department of Insurance indicated that public adjustment may be prohibited.
Ray ushered me into a meeting with a number of NAPIA’s board. Apparently, a few non-member public adjusters, primarily from New York, had been arrested and charged with staging additional damage to property damaged by Hurricane Andrew. This activity was wrongful and criminal. It was made by some bad apples, and we all know how that text plays out.
After the meeting, I called a number of public adjusters who resided in Florida. We needed to get organized. Although there are hundreds of public adjusters in Florida today, the list of public adjusters in Florida in late 1992 could not have been more than a hundred.
Doug Grose called and asked if he could help form the organization. With approval from Ray Altieri and Steve Lesser, we chose the name. Using NAPIA as a base, we named the organization the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters (FAPIA). Doug Grose filed the company’s papers. A graphic designer at my company, Carol Bowels, designed the logo used at the first meeting in Orlando, 1993.
I felt that FAPIA needed passionate and honest leadership. From dealings with Ray and those with Adjusters International, I knew that Ray Altieri was honest, sincere and wanted to make public adjusting a life’s work that would make his wife and children proud. He was the obvious choice for FAPIA’s first president.
Why does time seem to go faster as we get older?
His permanent website humbly says this about Ray:
Ray moved to Florida in 1986 with his wife and two sons, as a property insurance adjuster with The Hartford Insurance Company. On January 1, 1988, Ray opened his business as a Florida Licensed Public Insurance Adjuster. Competing with several other public adjuster firms at the time established years before his arrival, Ray built his business one claim at a time, using naturally learned skills from his blue-collar parents: work hard, protect your reputation, and be truthful. to your word.
…
During his career, Mr. Altieri President of the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters (NAPIA), from June 2011 to June 2012. He is the only public adjuster from Florida to ever serve in that capacity. NAPIA chose Mr. Altieri to the “Officer’s Ladder” in 2004, holding all offices during his rise to the presidency. Ray has also served on the NAPIA Board of Directors since 1991. NAPIA was founded in 1951 and remains the preeminent trade organization for public adjusters today. Mr. Altieri has earned the respected designation of Certified Professional Public Adjuster (CPPA) from NAPIA and in December 2017 was honored by NAPIA as their “Person of the Year.”
In early 1993, after Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida, the insurance industry and the Florida Legislature moved to abolish public adjuster licenses in Florida. To combat that effort, Florida’s public adjusters formed a new organization and voted Mr. Altieri as founding president of the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters (FAPIA). Ray led a contingent of public adjuster colleagues, lawyers and lobbyists to Tallahassee to create legislative oversight designed to reign in misconduct and preserve public adjuster licenses. His leadership of the association continued for the next 25 years and has been instrumental in the success of the organization where he was honored by FAPIA in 2006 with its Distinguished Service Award. In 2002, Mr. Altieri was asked by FAPIA to serve as President for a second term. Ray has served on FAPIA’s board since its inception in 1993.
Today, there seem to be many public adjusters promoting themselves on social media — but do they really have the respect of their peers and the insurance industry? Ray always tried to represent himself and his profession, so everyone benefited from his work. He has led by example as a public adjuster. I also know Ray personally, and he is a great example of being a father and husband. His family is lucky, and Ray has built luck from his family.
David Moore was his partner for a number of years. David had this to say about Ray:
From our days when we started organizing FAPIA with Chip Merlin and worked together at Adjusters International, and then in our partnership days at Altieri-Moore in the nineties, we have laughed together and we have cried together over business, children and medical issues. mine. To this day, I don’t know of a finer person, adjuster, father, husband, friend or mentor than Ray Altieri. Much deserved retirement.
In an age where former partners do not say anything nice about the relationships they had, David Moore’s comments about Ray are striking. We should all work to have the kind of relationships that Ray has built over the years.
Others might stop me and take me away to the following while I passionately advocate for a policyholder in court or in a speech, but I can’t imagine going into a planned retirement.
Retiring from work is a time for reflection. We should all reflect on the journey we want and the life we want. This life we live together is not a dress rehearsal.
For those of you who know me well, you know I love to compete and win, my sailboat racing and then listening to Zep as my diversion. As we consider the retirement of a leader and one to follow as an example in so many ways, I leave you with these Led Zeppelin lyrics:
Oh, let the sun set on my face
And stars fill my dream
I am a traveler of both time and space
To be where I’ve been
To sit with elders of the gentle race
This world has rarely seen
They talk about days that they sit and wait for
All will be revealed….
Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails
Cross the sea of years
Without provisions but an open face
Along the strait of fear
Oh, when I want, when I’m on my way,
And my feet bear my fickle way of staying
Ray – Cheers! You are an inspiration.
Today’s thought
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate your mind on the present.
– Buddha
song of the Day
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