Okla Risk Advisors consults with tribal nations before, during, and after federally declared disasters. Declaration strategy, Public Assistance grant management, Section 312 insurance reconciliation, appeals, and closeout. The firm is wholly owned by an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and keeps an office within the Choctaw Nation reservation.
Tribal emergency managers, program directors, and finance officers usually call with one of these.
A tribe can request a declaration directly from the President or recover as a subrecipient under a state. The 2024 Tribal Declarations Interim Guidance lowered the minimum damage indicator to $100,000 and raises the Public Assistance federal cost share to 98 percent once federal obligations reach $200,000.
How tribal declarations workUnder Section 312 FEMA reduces grant funding by anticipated proceeds, meaning what the policy should have paid. That is fixable, but only with a facility by facility reconciliation that separates matching from non matching scopes.
Section 312 explainedDeobligations at closeout and audit most often trace to insurance reconciliation that was never documented while the recovery was live. Reconstructing it is harder but not hopeless, and appeals have deadlines.
Appeals and audit supportUsually a documentation gap rather than an eligibility problem. The damage description, dimensions, and cost basis have to satisfy the PAPPG version that matches the declaration date, not the current one.
Public Assistance supportPublic Assistance provides management cost funding that can reimburse professional grant management support, which makes qualified help largely self funding.
Talk about management costsZero cost standby agreements competed in advance under the nation's own procurement law, including TERO and Indian preference provisions, activate only when a disaster occurs.
Pre positioned agreementsAfter a declaration, a tribal nation is recovering from two directions at once. FEMA Public Assistance pays for eligible emergency and permanent work. Property insurance pays for covered damage to the same buildings. Federal law does not allow both to pay for the same thing, so the grant is reduced by insurance proceeds that were received or that should have been available.
Nations lose money at that seam in both directions. Sometimes an insurance settlement is under negotiated and FEMA still deducts the full amount FEMA believes was available. Sometimes an obligated project is later deobligated at audit because the insurance reconciliation was never documented facility by facility. Most grant management firms have never adjusted a loss, and most adjusting firms have never written a project worksheet. This firm does both, which is the reason it exists.
Advisory support at the decision that shapes the entire recovery: whether to pursue a direct tribal declaration or proceed under the state umbrella. We support damage assessment and documentation to FEMA standards, threshold and cost share analysis under the tribal declarations guidance, and coordination with FEMA regional and tribal liaison staff.
Full lifecycle Public Assistance support for tribal recipients and subrecipients: applicant briefings, damage inventory, project worksheet development across Categories A through G, cost documentation and estimating, Grants Portal management, Section 406 mitigation proposals, and the reporting discipline that keeps obligated dollars obligated. Management costs for this work are themselves grant eligible.
The firm's signature discipline. FEMA deducts anticipated and actual insurance proceeds from grant funding, and reconciliation errors are the most common source of deobligation at closeout and audit. We reconcile carrier settlements against grant scopes facility by facility so the nation captures the full eligible recovery from both sources without exposing obligated funds to clawback.
When FEMA denies eligibility or reduces scope, the record decides the outcome. We support first and second appeals and arbitration, prepare closeout packages built to survive Office of Inspector General audit, and defend obligated funding through final reconciliation, including on recoveries the nation ran in-house that now need reinforcement.
The recoveries that go well are the ones contracted before the storm. The firm enters zero cost standby agreements competed under the nation's own procurement law, which federal regulation expressly permits tribes to follow, including TERO and Indian preference provisions. The agreement activates only when a disaster occurs.
Beyond disaster recovery, the firm serves as a Native owned professional services partner to tribal governments, enterprises, gaming and hospitality properties, and housing authorities: procurement and acquisition support, program and management consulting, grant compliance across FEMA, HUD, and BIA funding streams, staff augmentation, and risk advisory for tribal asset portfolios.
| NAICS | Description | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 541611 | Administrative and General Management Consulting Services | Primary here |
| 541618 | Other Management Consulting Services | Secondary |
| 624230 | Emergency and Other Relief Services | Secondary |
| 541620 | Environmental Consulting Services | Secondary |
| 524291 | Claims Adjusting | Firm primary |
Okla Risk Advisors is a consulting and advisory firm, not a public adjusting firm. Its work for tribal and governmental clients is grant management, settlement reconciliation, and recovery consulting.
The Master of Legal Studies is a non-attorney graduate degree. The firm's principal is not a licensed attorney and does not provide legal advice. The firm regularly works alongside tribal counsel.
The guidance and policy that govern a tribal recovery. Note that the Public Assistance policy version that applies is the one matching the declaration date, not the newest one.
The 2024 Tribal Declarations Interim Guidance is interim and may be revised. Program status changes without notice. See our FEMA program status page for where things stand as of August 2026.
Yes. Under the Stafford Act, a federally recognized tribal government may request a major disaster or emergency declaration directly from the President on a government to government basis, or it may recover as a subrecipient under a state declaration. The two paths carry different damage thresholds, cost shares, and administrative duties, and the choice shapes the entire recovery. The firm advises nations at that decision point and builds the damage record that supports it.
Federal law prohibits duplication of benefits. Under Section 312 of the Stafford Act, FEMA reduces grant funding by actual and anticipated insurance proceeds. Reconciliation errors are a leading cause of deobligated funds at closeout and audit. Reconciling carrier settlements against grant scopes facility by facility protects the nation's full eligible recovery from both sources.
FEMA Public Assistance provides management cost funding that can reimburse professional grant management support, which makes qualified recovery consulting largely self funding. The firm also offers zero cost standby agreements competed in advance under the nation's own procurement law that activate only when a disaster occurs.
Yes. The firm is wholly owned by an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is a self-certified Indian Economic Enterprise eligible under the Buy Indian Act, and maintains an office within the Choctaw Nation reservation at Wister, Oklahoma.
The guidance took effect December 3, 2024 and replaced the 2017 Tribal Declarations Pilot Guidance. Among the changes: the minimum damage indicator for Public Assistance was lowered from $250,000 to $100,000, the federal cost share for Public Assistance increases to 98 percent once federal obligations reach $200,000, several reporting deadlines were extended, and FEMA affirmed that it will defer to a Tribal Nation to define who qualifies as a tribal community member. The guidance is interim and may be revised after FEMA reviews comments filed under docket FEMA-2024-0035.
Public Assistance for emergency work does not depend on a mitigation plan, but Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding, which is often the largest pot of money a declaration opens, does require a FEMA approved plan under 44 CFR 201.7. Nations without a current plan lose access to that funding at exactly the moment it becomes available. See our tribal hazard mitigation planning service line.
Tribal leadership, emergency managers, program directors, and procurement and finance officers can reach the firm directly, whether the subject is a pending recovery, a standby agreement before the next event, or consulting support for the nation's programs.
Okla Risk Advisors is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. The firm does not act as a public adjuster and does not represent policyholders. The firm is not affiliated with or endorsed by FEMA, DHS, SBA, BIA, IHS, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, or any other government or tribal government. Indian Economic Enterprise status is self-certified under the Buy Indian Act and the SBA 8(a) application is pending. Read the full disclosures.