An insurance loss is an emotional and upsetting event.

Thinking clearly and rationally seconds after an auto accident or discovering your home’s been burglarized is just not part of our DNA.

How can we help our clients avoid confusion when there’s a crisis?

One surefire way can be both preventative and reactive. Take pictures!

Utilize Your Cell Phone

• Nearly everyone carries not only a cellphone, but a highly sophisticated camera. One rainy Saturday afternoon, talk a walk around your home or small business.
  
• Video each room while providing a narrative of its contents. Take individual pictures of items of significant value or uniqueness.
  
• You should take pictures of receipts for jewelry, bikes, artwork or any item of high value. Store it online or on your PC.
  
• You now have an invaluable visual library documenting your property. If you suffer a serious theft or fire, it’ll be so much easier to settle the claim.
  
• Also, be sure to avoid these common mistakes.

What to do Following an Auto Accident

• The same holds true of an auto accident. You should call 911!
  
• However, taking pictures of the damage, your car’s location in the intersection, identification of the other involved vehicles and copies of insurance ID cards and driver information is so much easier when you report the loss.
  
• Naturally, this assumes the accident resulted in no injury to you or your passengers.
  
• If the incident happens in a parking lot or private property where no police respond, visual evidence of damage (to your car) or no damage (to the other party’s vehicle) can be valuable evidence.
  
• Too often there’s a “he said / she said” situation 24 hours after a fender bender that changes agreements made at the scene. Visual documentation is so helpful.
  
• I had one experience where the car in front of me backed into me… and then claimed I hit her in the rear!
  
• I took close-up photos of her rear bumper and my front bumper showing zero damage along with recording “my version” on a picture video. She never pursued it further!

We are here to help!

• Taking advantage of new technology along with “old school” person-to-person contact can help make a bad experience better.
  
• Reach out to us today to learn more about our insurance services.

Guest Article, Written By: Bob Conner, President, Mints Insurance

Greetings Colleagues!  My name is Stephanie Wakeman and I’m the new chair for the Membership committee.  The mission of this committee is to foster membership growth and retention and enhance member engagement. This organization is for all NJ PT/PTA’s! We are stronger together and we will continue to build a community that advances the profession of physical therapy to improve the health of society.  APTANJ works hard for you each day by sponsoring educational events, keeping you up to date with the latest news affecting our profession, representing you in Trenton by educating our legislators on the importance of PT in transforming the health of society and protecting our practice act through the PT Plan.  APTANJ also offers its members a variety of benefits from participation in credit unions to specialized insurance plans through PTNJ Insurance Services and help with marketing your practice, just to name a few. 

One of our goals for this year is to increase membership to 3000 APTANJ members (we are currently around 2,900)! Start to watch for #ATPANJ3K on social media to stay up to date on upcoming activities.   We encourage all of you to use #APTANJ3K to help generate interest and membership as well.  To kick off 2019, we are planning a Happy Hour on Friday, April 5^th from 5-8 at the Crowne Plaza in Plainsboro.  Members of the committee will be present to welcome you, talk about benefits and opportunities and give away some awesome prizes.  Stay tuned for future networking and PT happy hour events throughout the year!  Hope to see you there!

Stephanie Wakeman, PT, DPT, MS
APTANJ Membership Chair

APTANJ Connects allows APTANJ members to identify physical therapists or physical therapist assistants with a particular specialty or knowledge in a certain discipline.

Click here, to access these individuals, use the Field Resource drop down menu below, select a specialty and press continue.  A list of participants and additional contact information will be available by clicking on an individual's name.

If you or another APTANJ member you know would like to be added to this list as a resource, please email info@aptanj.org.

Click here for APTANJ Connect