Preferred Partner Spotlight: Mel Ngayan - Centurisk

As Director of Appraisal Services, Melvin Ngayan has served Centurisk clients since 1997, and has been Preferred Governmental Insurance Trust 's main contact for trusted property insurance appraisals since 2008. His tenure at Centurisk has included appraisal projects for municipalities, county governments, school districts and other public sector entities. In his current role, Mel continues to help train and manage appraisal staff in the Eastern Region of the U.S. and lead large, complex projects. His appraisal knowledge spans a wide range of structures, including historical buildings, water treatment plants, and other architecturally unique structures.

What do you and Centurisk do for Preferred and for Preferred members?

To secure the right amount of property insurance and safeguard your organization from financial loss due to a risk event, maintaining an accurate, up-to-date statement of property values is critical. Our team at Centurisk supports this by providing onsite property insurance appraisal services to Preferred and its members. Our goal is to help validate Preferred’s list of member-owned properties and the key property details that insurance companies need most, like square footages, construction types, etc. Then we establish a replacement cost value for insurance purposes.

In my role, I help ensure that Preferred and its members receive quality services that meet their needs. This includes a combination of onsite property appraisals for newly acquired properties and buildings valued above a certain threshold, and the valuation of the property in the open and contents associated with those buildings. Buildings not receiving appraisals will have their property values trended annually. Our team works with Preferred and its members to make this all a streamlined and effective process, leaving them with current, cleaner and more consistent property data.?

Why are comprehensive, accurate property values so important for Florida public entities to have?

An on-site appraisal helps ensure that an entity’s schedule of values and property underwriting data is accurate. This is important for Florida public entities because it helps achieve effective insurance coverage, means insurance premiums can be distributed equitably across members, and results in more competitive rates in the insurance and reinsurance marketplace. Further, armed with this data, members can rest assured that in the event of a loss, replacement costs and the proof-of-loss substantiation they need are accurate, current, and accessible. It's a win-win situation for both Preferred and its members.

What do you like about working with Preferred?

I enjoy working with Preferred because the pool combines industry knowledge with effective organizational abilities to make completing large appraisal projects smoother and more efficient. Any time our valuation consultants have had questions, Preferred and its members have been very responsive. As a result, we’re able to complete our work quickly and thoroughly, confident that we’re providing real value to Preferred and its members. And in the end, it’s all about members! We are closely aligned with Preferred in that we are both very member-oriented organizations. This alignment is just one more thing that makes working together enjoyable. We’re glad we can provide members with property data they can trust and offer Preferred an appraisal resource they feel confident in relying on.

You work with dozens of public entity pools throughout the country. In terms of property structure and service levels, how does Preferred stack up in comparison to other pools?

Preferred continues to provide property appraisal services to all its Property Program Members as a value-added service and at no additional cost — a great benefit to members, demonstrating the pool’s commitment to accurate data, effective insurance coverage and reduced financial risk.?This appraisal program has been in place for 16 years and counting, and it includes a combination of property appraisals and our AMP software solution to track and report on the collected property data. As an early adopter of AMP, the team at Preferred ultimately helped shape how the program functions. So, with all of that said, I'd say Preferred’s Property Program is among the most consistent and comprehensive in the country, and as an organization, Preferred continues to innovate and think about how best to support its members.