Pay Attention to Franklin if You Want to Keep Your Benjamins

Benjamin Franklin

I will admit that I don’t know as much as I should about American history. To be honest, I just didn’t pay attention to history lessons while I was in school. Now that I’m a little older (ahem!), I do find it to be more interesting. Last winter, I watched with fascination the HBO mini-series about John Adams. One of my favorite characters from that show was Ben Franklin. I never realized that he was such a colorful character: the way he loved the French, food, wine, and a good time. Not to mention how he was, apparently, a notorious flirt. Since I saw the show, I’ve paid a little more attention to Franklin, and now notice how his quotes are still applicable to everyday life.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Benjamin Franklin.

As a CFE, I can tell you that there is no way to prevent fraud.  But, there are things that you can do to deter it–and deterring fraud is far better than trying to collect from your insurance company after the fraud has happened. This is where the ounce of prevention (trying to deter fraud within your organization) is worth a pound of cure (trying to collect on a fidelity claim).

If you’ve already made the prudent decision to purchase fidelity insurance to protect your business against employee theft, why not make an additional prudent decision to decrease the probability that you will have to take advantage of this coverage?  Because for most business owners, submitting and defending a fidelity insurance claim can be a real pain. If you make a claim under this coverage, you will have to:

1. Uncover the fraud.
2. Investigate the fraud.
3. Document all of the facts and physical evidence.
4. Submit the information to your insurance carrier.
5. Submit to a detailed review of your claim.
6. Respond to voluminous document requests.
7. Answer barrages of questions.
8. Negotiate a settlement that may, or may not, recover all of your losses.

Or…

You can meet with a Certified Fraud Examiner, tighten up your existing controls, and let all of the staff and management know that minimizing the potential of fraud is one of your primary internal business objectives for 2010.

So, what are some of your most-important business objectives for the new year? I’d love to hear from you…you can comment below.

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