First Cardinal Corporation has notified it’s 14 New York State programs that it will apply a surcharge to all trusts and consequently assess all clients effective January 1, 2006 to offset increased costs imposed by New York State. First Cardinal’s self-insured groups have never charged this assessment back to the participating employers, and has lobbied unsuccessfully to pay the New York State assessment as a percentage of premium.  The amount of this surcharge will range from 5%  to 9.5%. The surcharge, once collected, will go directly to the bottom line and will support the financial integrity of each program. %

WorkCompCentral recently obtained a report from the NYS Worker’s Compensation Board that stated that nearly half of New York State’s 62 worker’s compensation group self-insurance trusts were categorized as “under funded on a regulatory basis”, and that 20-30 under-funded group self-insurers have stopped accepting new members while they build up reserves.  According to Jon Sullivan, WCB spokesperson, a “handful” of struggling trusts have been ordered to assess their members. According to a separate report obtained by WorkCompCentral, the New York State self-insurance deficit currently totals $613 million. %

Federated Named to

Ward’s 50 Benchmark Group

     The Federated Insurance Companies has been named to the 2005 Ward’s 50 Benchmark Group of top performing insurance companies. Federated is one of only eight companies named to both the Property-Casualty and the Life-Health Benchmark Groups.  Ward Financial Group is a Cincinnati-based management consulting firm that specializes in the insurance industry. Each year it recognizes 50 companies that have achieved outstanding financial results in the areas of safety, consistency, and performance over a five-year period (2000-2004). Ward reviewed approximately 3,000 property-casualty companies and 1,000 life-health companies during its analysis. %