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NOTIONS: Let’s clear the air at state schools

Long ago, I did some work for Special Olympics. In the process, I learned a semantic preference of the organization: One never says “mentally retarded people.” One says “people with mental retardation.” The rationale: These athletes are people first, not a condition. Long ago, I also did AIDS education and prevention work. In the process, I learned a semantic preference of health organizations and their clients: One never says “AIDS victims.” One says “people with AIDS.” The rationale: Those with…

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Insurance adjuster building offices near 96th Street:

Indianapolis-based National Catastrophe Adjusters will move next spring to a new, more permanent home in Fishers. The company broke ground this month on the two-story, 13,000-square-foot office at the corner of Windermere Boulevard and Olympia Drive off of 96th Street. NCA hopes to move in by the end of April. Its office is now at the intersection of 75th Street and Shadeland Avenue. NCA decided to build because it wanted a permanent home, said Ken Averitt, chief operations officer. The…

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Clarian to put prices on its Web site

Clarian Health Partners will start posting prices for care on its Web site early next year, a move aimed at advancing the national movement toward greater transparency in health care costs.

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Roof Envy: Insurers pay to fix thousands of hail-damaged homes, but some neighbors are feeling left out

After an April hailstorm caused widespread damage in central Indiana, an epidemic slowly and quietly began spreading through tree-lined streets and cul-de-sacs. As contagious as the common cold, “neighboritis” is contracted through casual contact with friends and neighbors, even by the simple act of driving by a house topped with sparkling new shingles. Those infected often experience an initial wave of optimism and euphoria, sometimes followed by a crash that leaves them feeling dissatisfied, even betrayed. The cause of the…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Better system of sharing bodes well for profession

When it was built in the 1930s, the original James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children was a very large construction project. Yet it required only 40 sheets of drawings, and only the stonework at the entry and the ceiling in the lobby were extensively detailed. The rest of the “detail knowledge” was filled in by contractors. Compare what it took to build Riley with the 50,000-plus drawings issued through six construction managers to build the new Indianapolis Midfield Terminal complex….

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INVESTING: Energy, material stocks showing signs of strength

We’ve been talking lately about falling prices and the effects on stock prices. I know everyone gets a big kick out of cheaper gas, and a lot of experts are telling us oil will fall to $40 a barrel. But judging from recent market action, oil and other commodity plays might do better than observers think for the rest of the year. The headline-grabbing news of the weak housing market is doing a great job taking people’s eyes off the…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: What you should know about Life Settlements

One fairly new investment that has gained attention in recent years is the Senior Life Settlement. What are Senior Life Settlements? Life Settlements evolved from the Viatical industry in the 1990s, when people diagnosed with terminal illnesses such as AIDS, usually facing life expectancies of three years or less, sold their life insurance policies on the secondary market to cover costs of their health care. These types of investments have gradually increased over the years and have paved the way…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Taxes, school, health costs challenge affluent families

Affluent families face many threats to their wealth. But three forces eroding the legacies in almost all of them are taxes, education costs and post-retirement health care. Fortunately, with proper planning, there are steps you can take to help ensure your wealth carries you through retirement comfortably with ample left over for your heirs. Make taxes manageable Taxes may be unavoidable but they can be managed in a way that makes them less destructive to your wealth. Specifically, the alternative…

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Preparation is key to surviving disasters of all kinds: Financial experts offer tips to keep your records safe in emergencies

Last year’s hurricane disasters in the Gulf Coast region brought to light how easily and quickly personal financial records can be lost or destroyed in a catastrophe. While hurricanes aren’t likely to hit Indiana, tornadoes, fires and floods are always a possibility, as are crimes such as theft, vandalism and identity theft. Financial planners emphasize that it’s important to keep records safe from various disasters that can hit without warning. In fact, they say, it’s good to have a plan…

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Hammering away at his own business: After 18 years working for others, contractor strikes out on his own

Built to Last Construction Hammering away at his own business After 18 years working for others, contractor strikes out on his own Bradley Ford is a true, hands-on owner. “I really like working with my hands. I couldn’t stand working behind a desk,” said Ford, 40, who founded Built To Last Construction in 2000. Starting the business was the culmination of a career path he started in 1982 as a 16-year-old student at Perry Meridian High School and the building…

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Working with the numbers: Using math, local actuaries help companies’ bottom line by analyzing risk to reduce expenses

Expanding opportunities Women make up an increasing number of the 18,000 actuaries who work in the field nationwide, but that wasn’t always the case. Kirk recalls a distinct imbalance of men and women in the actuarial field in the late 1970s. “When I first started, I was quite often the only female in professional meetings,” she said. During annual actuary conferences, “the women would kind of clump together because there were so few of us,” but that has changed. At…

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PAN founder focuses on another IT venture: BubbleUp aims to standardize musicians’ Web sites

It didn’t take David Pfenninger long to get back into the game. Just months after selling Carmel-based Internet-test provider Performance Assessment Network Inc. in April for $75 million to St. Louis-based TALX Corp., Pfenninger is betting on another Internet venture: an online music marketing and management startup called BubbleUp. Pfenninger initially remained part of PAN’s local management team after the acquisition, but stepped down this summer, retaining a role as a consultant. “I thought it was time to make a…

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Firm sees opportunity where banks see risk: Oak Street has big hopes for insurance agency loans

Bankers like to see plenty of collateral when they underwrite loans. Insurance agents don’t have many hard assets to show them. Free toasters won’t smooth over this credit dilemma. But the leaders of the Carmel-based Oak Street companies boast they can. And they’re poised to capitalize with a fast-growing specialty lending firm. “The first line of our vision statement says we’ll build a long-term sustainable financial-services firm,” said Oak Street Chairman Steven Alonso. “It’s our strategy to diversify.” Founded in…

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Lilly decides to self-insure for product liability

Eli Lilly and Co. has picked an insurer it knows extremely well to cover future problems in the high-stakes world of product liability litigation–itself. The Indianapolis drugmaker opted for self-insurance after struggling to find coverage in what it terms a “very restrictive insurance market.”

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Strong economy draws out plethora of spending plans

If you ever want to satisfy your curiosity about recessions and business cycles, travel over to the Web site of the National Bureau of Economic Research. It has recorded and documented every downturn and uptick in the U.S. economy since 1857. And over that century and a half, the bureau has noticed certain regularities to the boom and bust of the economy around us. In the first stages of recovery from a recession, for example, it is quite common for…

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FUNNY BUSINESS: Planetary restructuring hits Pluto where it hurts

Poor Pluto. One day it was spinning through the galaxy, meandering around the sun at a stately 248.54 Earth years per lap, rotating in the wrong direction as compared to the other planets, minding its own business, and then-Bam! It got downsized, reclassified as a planetelle or planetina or planette, whatever they’ve decided to call it. Reminds me of some businesses I know. One day everything’s A-OK, to use space parlance. Next thing you know, Pluto is putting all the…

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St. Vincent makes bigger investment in charity care: Need drives construction of Primary Care Center set to open in mid-2007

Here’s a lesson they don’t teach in business school: Take an entity that loses $4 million annually and expand it 50 percent. That’s the plan St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital unveiled earlier this month when it broke ground on a new, larger Primary Care Center serving indigent, underinsured and uninsured patients. That population of poor, mostly Spanish-speaking patients has more than doubled its annual visits since 2000. St. Vincent officials say the new $4 million center is 10 years overdue. Their…

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25A-32A All in the family: Good relationships key to living and working together

25A-32A All in the family Good relationships key to living and working together The family that plays together stays together, as the old adage goes. But what about the family that works together? Many-if not most-of the estimated 450,000 small businesses in Indiana employ more than one family member, local smallbusiness experts say. In some cases, family involvement might be limited to a spouse who helps out with the books part-time or a child who comes into the office occasionally…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: After CFO’s jump to rival, Emmis opts to fight back

When Emmis Communications Corp. Chief Financial Officer Walter Berger bolted in January for the same post at CBS Radio in New York, the Indianapolis company said little publicly. But it’s now apparent Emmis officials were more than a little peeved. In recent weeks, they’ve filed an arbitration case against Berger in hopes of recouping some of his compensation, and they’ve sued CBS alleging tortuous interference with his contract. “I think this case is very clear-cut,” said David Barrett, vice president…

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Top Conseco executives opt to live in Chicago

Jim Prieur makes a great choice for Conseco Inc. CEO, analysts say. But whether his hiring bodes well for the company’s Carmel headquarters is a different question. Conseco Chairman Glenn Hilliard said last week that Prieur will live in Chicago when he joins the company next month.

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