Anyone else seeing a significant spike to their general liability/umbrella insurance this year? My renewal is 50% higher than my 1st year...

Just to be clear the term "monopolistic state" references the fact that I am required to buy workers comp insurance through the state of Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation. The government has a monopoly on that market and it is illegal for me to get that insurance from someplace else. I think the only other option is that a company could prove ability to self insure.
 
ATH said:
Just to be clear the term "monopolistic state" references the fact that I am required to buy workers comp insurance through the state of Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation. The government has a monopoly on that market and it is illegal for me to get that insurance from someplace else. I think the only other option is that a company could prove ability to self insure.
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Wow, that’s unfortunate. We have the option of any private carrier we want or the state fund, the state fund is astronomically expensive, as it’s a high risk fund, and it’s (mis)managed by the government like everything else they do.
 
eyehearttrees said:
@ATH my Like of your comment was Liking you mentioning it / calling it for what it is, not for you having to be around it! But tendencies towards monopolies are inherent and IMO probably inescapable (watch Walmart get into the insurance game tomorrow!)
Not trying to be nihilistic or anything but so long as we've got business-in-general arranged in such a way where it's profit-at-any-cost (through legal fiduciary responsibility!) then shortsighted plans, plans with high negative-externalities, mono-oligopo-listic & cartel behaviors & price-fixing, it's all "the right thing" when quarterly-earnings are the focus!
/end rant :p




Thanks a ton for the specific product-recommendations, honestly just very ignorant about "the options" and had been thinking "you need to learn Excel", IIRC quickbooks is even simpler so yeah hearing a specific go-to is of great value to me will get on that ASAP (I'm a bit curious Re "expenses" for my "final #", specifically If I no longer have a receipt, is it fraudulent to claim it as an expense?" I've lost so many receipts, am NOT looking to make-up expenses in fact I want my income-for-taxation to be as HIGH as possible - so I'm more credit-worthy - but I have so many missing & ruined receipts for instance chainsaws/gasoline/etc that I can show and "prove" to a degree but not w/ the actual receipts....Is it fraudulent to write-off expenses that ARE legitimate, but do not have physical receipts anymore?)

Awesome to have an insider chiming-in, thank you!!
For me, my "My insurer hasn't asked me 1 question about my operation", I am a small sole-proprietorship operation, but - that said - there's really no way they could know that, I'm just finished with my 1st year 'solo', about a month into year-2, and never have I had a line-item asking my income (in fact I'm not certain they even asked if I had employees....they must've asked that last year at the initial setup, certainly didn't ask about it this year and I actually went into my insurance-agent's office to do this!)

Re those rising#'s you mention -- Those #'s seem to be outpacing inflation, yet insuring such activities is something one would expect to get cheaper over time as you guys(insurers) further refine logistics of your setups, to hear you're raising rates above&beyond the average inflation rate seems unreasonable at first-listen, any way you could elaborate? Make it so I don't presume/assume that it's simply cash-grab stuff? I see the insurance company as a market that's not an oligopoly but certainly not anything resembling the concept of a 'free/open' market (due the barriers-to-entry)
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When insurance is written at rates that turn out to be unprofitable as is happening currently with auto insurance the rates will go up. Factors that impact liability insurance are; ever increasing awards in litigation, increasing accident frequency, rising medical costs, and rising costs of repairing or replacing a vehicle. Also keep in mind all insurance policies are not equal. They vary not just in price but also in the coverage they provide. Does your policy provide professional liability, did your agent even discuss what professional liability is? Do you have coverage for a spill or overspray of fertilizer/pesticide/herbicide? Does your policy provide liability coverage for work with cranes? It's extremely important to get an insurance broker that knows tree care and understands what you do. -I'm not a broker by the way. This is not a lead up to asking you to be my client.
 
Reach said:
Wow, that’s unfortunate. We have the option of any private carrier we want or the state fund, the state fund is astronomically expensive, as it’s a high risk fund, and it’s (mis)managed by the government like everything else they do.
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Yes and no...
I'd prefer the option to shop around, but the BWC is not allowed to be "profitable". Not that folks aren't paid well, and they have nice offices and the like...they just don't have a return to shareholders.

Also, in 2020, we were given several "rebates". For example the ENTIRE premium paid in 2018 was refunded. There were several factors that played into that, but the 2 obvious sources of extra income and cost savings that allowed for this:
1) markets were rocking along and BWC's holdings are invested.
2) nobody gets hurt on the job when nobody is on the job (Covid shutdowns)...so they had a significant reduction in expenses.

A traditional carrier probably would have pocketed that money and/or paid bonuses to the executives. (Did anyone else get workers comp refunds in 2020?)

However, I would have preferred they recognize they are taking in too much money and adjust rates going forward. Rates have not gone down... but they clearly had some miscalculations in their actuarial tables because they had too much money. Even without the shutdown, they would have had too much. Yes, that is because of the questions did well... But that needs to be accounted for as a source of their income. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining they sent me a couple checks!!! I would just rather see reduced expenses in the long term.
 
ATH said:
Just to be clear the term "monopolistic state" references the fact that I am required to buy workers comp insurance through the state of Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation. The government has a monopoly on that market and it is illegal for me to get that insurance from someplace else. I think the only other option is that a company could prove ability to self insure.
Click to expand...
Here all workman’s comp IS the state. Essentially a hourly tax on the business
 
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