Business & Governmental Insurance Agency

What's New

Property and Casualty and Health Care Insurance Market Turmoil: Meeting The Challenge

It's a hard market out there.

Insurance industry experts observing both the Property and Casualty and Health Care insurance markets agree, the state is currently experiencing one of the hardest insurance markets we've seen in years, and one of the most enduring. Historically, insurance markets cycle between hard and soft. Although no one can predict exactly how long each cycle lasts, most experts believe that the current market will not soften within the next 12-18 months.

The factors contributing to the hard Property and Casualty market include a sharp rise in both the frequency and severity of claims relating to asbestos and mold, the large claims related to the September 11th tragedy, and continuing concerns over terrorism. The Health Care insurance market is plagued by the continued sharp rise in the cost of prescription drugs. Both are affected by the weak economy, which has caused insurance carriers' investment portfolios to decrease in value. These factors combine in both markets to create a significant reduction in the capacity of both insurers and reinsurers to take on additional risk.

What does this mean to you? You have likely been experiencing steep increases in premiums and insurers who are less willing to offer you a quote if they perceive your entity as a high risk.

How BGIA Can Help

The good news is, there is someone who can help. At Business and Governmental Insurance Agency (BGIA), public entity business is all we do. Individual insurance brokers do not have the personnel to do anything other than shop around for the lowest rate.

Value-Added Services

At BGIA, our value-added services include expert risk assessment, coverage design and the development and implementation of safety and loss control strategies. We offer many value-added services that are unique in the industry.

For example, we regularly conduct internal audits for our clients on invoices and activity reports to ensure that the insurance company's formula for calculating premiums and reporting claims is accurate. After finding a mistake on one of our client's invoices, we spent a week investigating the issue. After much debate, the insurance company accepted their mistake and refunded our client $35,000.

In other cases, we have identified incorrect loss ratio calculations leading to unjustified premium increases. We worked closely with the insurance company to correct these mistakes to ensure our clients were not overcharged upon renewal, amounting to a 10% cost savings for one client.

We also routinely translate the complicated insurance jargon found in these reports into layman's terms so that our insured's can understand how their premiums and claims were handled. This helps our customers make educated decisions about their health insurance needs.

Innovative Solutions

Our experienced team of insurance professionals proactively look for the best solution to ensure our clients needs are met, even if it means looking beyond the traditional commercial insurance market.

When our Municipal clients faced intolerable increases in their Property and Casualty premiums, we drove the formation of the Garden State Municipal Joint Insurance Fund (GSMJIF). The GSMJIF's accomplishments to date include:

• The overall increase in assessments for the Fund was just 4% from 2002 to 2003, compared to increases in the commercial insurance market of 15-30%
• Fund members' overall Safety Certification score (a measure of loss control and safety engineering programs' quality and effectiveness) improved by 20% in the first year
• For the calendar year 2002, the Fund's loss ratio was less than 20%, compared to the general industry average of 55%
• The Fund introduced state-of-the-art injury assessment technology that will significantly reduce members' workers' compensation costs

Instead of dealing with a "shopper", deal with a company that will offer you real solutions. Find out what the expert team at BGIA can do for you. Call us today!

(800) 272-6771

Steve Edwards Ext. 241

Stuart Migdon Ext. 226

Terry Dermody Ext. 214