Workers Comp Insurance Agenet

Anthony Bauwens

Anthony Bauwens

Location
Reno
Looking to start hiring full-time employees and need some help finding an affordable workers comp agent. Our current insurance provider does not cover what we need for workers comp apparently. Only a two owner business now, looking to save as much as possible. Any recommendations? Thanks!
 
Anthony Bauwens said:
Looking to start hiring full-time employees and need some help finding an affordable workers comp agent. Our current insurance provider does not cover what we need for workers comp apparently. Only a two owner business now, looking to save as much as possible. Any recommendations? Thanks!
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Keep looking and keep after the agents. They can be a pain in the a$$ and aren’t interested in talking to small potatoes. I have been through a couple since mid October last fall. Every time they are big on talk until it comes down to getting quotes and policies together. It’s partially my fault cause I didn’t keep after them weekly, but that’s not the company I want insuring me if I have to chase them down. I have looked into state run WC ins, which I have heard is where most “start ups” have to begin, but in PA it seamed overly complicated. Let’s just say it’s not easy for the little guy at all, and even more difficult for the little guy that is working every day just to keep up.
I’ll be interested in what others have to say.
 
flyingsquirrel25 said:
Keep looking and keep after the agents. They can be a pain in the a$$ and aren’t interested in talking to small potatoes. I have been through a couple since mid October last fall. Every time they are big on talk until it comes down to getting quotes and policies together. It’s partially my fault cause I didn’t keep after them weekly, but that’s not the company I want insuring me if I have to chase them down. I have looked into state run WC ins, which I have heard is where most “start ups” have to begin, but in PA it seamed overly complicated. Let’s just say it’s not easy for the little guy at all, and even more difficult for the little guy that is working every day just to keep up.
I’ll be interested in what others have to say.
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I've always teamed up with other contractors, for quite a few years now. But, I am interested in what it would be like to have an employee but there is so much I don't know about it. The first question I ask myself is what would the TOTAL COST be for one employee.
I know first of all there's WORKERS COMP: In Maine we have two private insurers that do most of it. Unum is one of them. But, I have no idea how much it costs for our industry. Basically what happens is you pay your workers comp insurer a % of whatever hourly wage you pay you employee right? Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this.
 
If your insurance agents (for home/auto/GL) don't even know how to point you in the right direction for getting WC coverage, I would suspect them to be incompetent or lazy. Look for an opportunity to drop them.

For tree workers I believe we started paying around 43% (i.e., $0.43 for WC for every dollar that was paid out to the employee) when we were in the assigned risk pool. We paid out at this rate for only about a year before someone collaborating with this agency specializing in high risk occupations called and promised a better rate. He kept calling until I finally had time to work with him and make the change (I have no office staff). Now we're paying 28.6%. To get this rate I had to opt for a $5K deductible. The insurers typically want you to pay a chunk up front. In the assigned risk pool I think I had to lay down $15K for them before coverage began on my first two employees. With Amerisafe it was more like $6K and we had a much higher payroll.

Here's what I gather. Since the state law requires us to carry WC coverage, the state also assigns a rate at which insurance agencies are required to pool together and cover you at that rate (that was the high, initial rate that we were paying). If, however, you pay at that rate for a little while without any claims, insurers are going to start seeing a profit opportunity in you and will offer to cover you at a lower rate. Other things being equal, the more money you spend the more attractive you will be.

Good luck in sorting this out quickly and getting back to the trees.
 
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What about other employee related expenses, like payroll taxes etc? Is that easy enough to do on your own or is it smarter to have a payroll service do it. I have a feeling there are more expenses beyond the hourly wage you pay them and workers comp.
 
You're right there is more expenses beyond just WC and wages. If you're using quickbooks it does a good job of keeping up with them. You have the employer portion of medicare, social security, and unemployment insurance in addition to payroll taxes.
 
Great info! I am in NC too. Soon I will complete my second year in assigned risk, no claims. I would like to chat with you. Obviously you have done your research. Do you have an agent that you recommend? Got a spam email from Southeastern Agency Group, who says I can go from 41% to 21%. Familiar with them? Thx!!
 
My initial was Jeff Chandler, a guy with Southeastern Agency Group, that cold called me and put me together with Amerisafe. I'm not sure what the relationship is between Southeastern Agency Group and Amerisafe, but Jeff seemed to know his stuff and definitely put in some time with me answering my questions, following up, and putting the deal together. Amerisafe sends out the inspectors and auditors and collects payments. The Amerisafe inspector serviced a couple of of the other legit tree services in my area. I'll pm you some contact info.
 
Excellent post. I have some worker’s comp issues as well right now. I started a different post so as not to hijack this thread.
 
Overall cost of employees is obviously going to vary state to state as the work comp rate varies(Clearly quite a bit as NC is around 40% while WI is at 12-13%). In Wisconsin, we estimate the average cost of an employee is $.30 for every $1 of payroll. That's with payroll/unemployment taxes, work comp, etc.

From what I've seen, the best way to do it starting out is to start your own "ghost" work comp policy where you report no payroll and pay the minimum premium through the state fund. Subcontract any work you need help with and make sure those subs have their own liability and work comp policies as well. After 2-3 years of operating with no losses and no payroll, we have a couple insurance companies that will start to look into it. That is the voluntary market so you are looking at better rates, service, claims, and safety resources.

If you've had work comp for 3 years and have a few employees, you have a lot more options than you'd think. Amerisafe does well but is not clear with the division of payroll on their audits. We get a lot of calls from owners that just got slammed with a 20k audit. ArborMax and NIP have solid programs but do much better on the big players. We work with another carrier that just saved a client 30% BUT they prefer most of the work off the ground is done with a lift or boom.
 
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