Sarah Perry, risk manager for the City of Columbia, Mo., completed the city's renewals by Oct. 1.
Property "went great," she reports, adding that it helped that the properties being insured were not located in hurricane or flood areas.
Perry stresses, "Our relationship with our property carrier is to our advantage. I know they worked with me."
But while the city's relationship with the insurer was important for the property renewals, "it certainly didn't help with our excess workers' comp or our excess liability," she says. "In both of those we ended up changing carriers."
It wasn't a massive increase for the excess liability, she notes, "but I was having trouble accepting their reasons." The insurer pointed out exposures that she says haven't changed in years.
To combat this, Perry made the decision to go with a risk-retention group: Vermont-based States RRG, a program for public entities only.
"I know some other public entities that have been in it for a while," she says, explaining why she was comfortable with the decision.
Because it was a nontraditional form of insurance, she worked directly with the risk-retention group rather than her broker.
"[The rate] was still a little higher than last year, but not nearly what it would have been," she adds. "And I think the relationship in the long term is going to be beneficial."
She also decided to go with another carrier for workers' comp coverage. Her former insurer cited exposures that have been reported, although she says their $500,000 retention has not been pierced.
One definite trend Perry is seeing during renewals: the need for more information from insurers.
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