Who is NCCI and what do they do?

NCCI does lots of things.  What they do can affect your Total Cost of Risk.  According to their website:

“National Council on Compensation Insurance, Inc., based in Boca Raton, FL, manages the nation’s largest database of workers compensation insurance information. NCCI analyzes industry trends, prepares workers compensation insurance rate recommendations, determines the cost of proposed legislation, and provides a variety of services and tools to maintain a healthy workers compensation system.”

What they do affects the workers compensation rates for all employers in your class as well as your specific experience modifier (determined by your company’s claims), and impact of any legislative changes on rates in your state.

Rates for your business

To determine the rates for your business NCCI uses class codes based on what your employees duties are.  More hazardous duties usually equal higher rates.  For example, steel workers have a much higher rate than salespeople.  Each business can have multiple class codes depending on the variety of duties their different employees perform.  A Manufacturer may have a different class code for clerical, sales, drivers, and 2 more for each of two products they make.  They look at the claims for all employees in that class in the entire state and compare to payroll in the class to determine a rate.  They use actuaries for this.

Your Experience Modifier

If your premium is over $5000 for the past few years or over $10,000 in a single year, you are subject to being “experience rated” by NCCI.  Every year you will receive a sheet from NCCI that has a bunch of numbers on it and looks similar to a spreadsheet.  There is a complicated formula involved but basically the more claims you have the higher your modifier is.  The modifier, often called “EMR” or “Mod”, is a multiplier applied to your premium.  So if your modifier is 1.25, you get surcharged 25% and if it’s .75 you get a 25% discount.  All insurance companies will apply your experience modifier to your rates.  If you are really into math here is a link that explains how they are calculated: “ABC’s of Experience Rating”, by NCCI.

Impact of Legislative Changes or Case Law

NCCI will also determine how any legislation that affects workers compensation will ultimately affect the rates.  These changes could result in immediate or future changes in the rates for your state.  Changes that are perceived to change rates (such as a new law extending disability time) will be calculated by an actuary based on detailed information of past claims and a rate increase or decrease will often be applied immediately or in the future.  Court cases that overturn this legislation or other court cases that are appealed above the workers comp court can also have an effect on the rates.  In Oklahoma, key legislation was passed that had an immediate rate reduction.  Over the next few months, many of these changes were challenged and defeated in appeals courts and therefore much of the rate decrease was reversed and rates were raised back up to almost where they were before.

You can see the effect NCCI has on your rates.  It is funded by the member insurance companies that are members and through fees they charge for their data.  Understanding this helps you better control your Total Cost of Risk.

What Makes up your Total Cost of Risk (TCOR)?

Your TCOR (Total Cost of Risk) includes 3 major categories of Expenses:  Preventative Cost, Direct Cost, and Indirect Cost.  Together these equal your Total Cost of Risk.  Many people just think of their insurance cost alone but this is far from your total cost.  What is interesting is the cost you spend in one area can effect the amount you spend in another.  It is a proven fact that money spent in preventing claims or losses reduces your direct costs by several times the amount you spend.  Indirect costs are usually several times what the direct cost of a claim are so if you have some basic math skills, it doesn't take long to realize you should be spending more money in prevention of claims.  Here are some costs associated with each category that make up your Total Cost of Risk (TCOR):

• Preventative - Safety & Risk Management, Pre-Employee Screening, Safety Equipment, Culture Management, Wellness, New Hire Training, salary of safety personnel & expenses, Personal Protective Equipment, Safety Meetings.
• Direct- Insurance, Managed Care, OSHA Fines, Deductibles, Legal Expenses, Loss of Productivity post accident, Management time to administer Injury or attend hearings, Staff time to administer injury.
• Indirect - Reputation with insurance carrier(s), reputation with vendors, loss of morale, loss of reputation, employee gossip, etc.

Considering all of these expenses why would anyone not want to spend more money on Preventative costs? 

Should you form multiple Entities to Reduce your Risk?

Question:  Why should a business owner use different LLC’s (or corporations) to help manage their risk and exposure?

Answer:  First of all, legally speaking, it’s important to understand that LLC’s (or S-Corps or C-Corps, whichever one you use) are actually their own, separate, “legal persons.”  This means that, just like you or me, the LLC (or corporation) can actually sue and/or be sued as a separate, legal entity (Note: the only difference between you being your own, legal person and the LLC being its own, legal person is that you, as a human being, in addition to being a separate, legal person, are also what’s called a “natural person” who is, medically speaking, an entity that is alive and breathing!).    

Second of all, as a business owner, it’s important to understand the incredible importance of having your various interests owned by various LLC’s (or corporations) because doing this, in and of itself, is actually a great way to perform the critical function of risk management.  How does it work?  Read below.

For example, let’s say you’re a business owner who owns a plumbing company with 50 plumbers, 50 trucks and you own a 5 acre tract of land which contains your warehouse building and your administrative offices.  You own all the land, the offices, the trucks and the warehouse building.  Accordingly, you’d likely want to separate out your ownership of these various assets in the following manner:

 A)     You’d want to change the ownership of the trucks from your personal name (or from the one, single LLC or corporation that currently owns everything associated with your entire business) to a different, separate LLC - let’s call it “Truck, LLC.”  By putting your equipment into Truck, LLC, you’ve separated it from the other assets you own (i.e., the 5 acre tract of land, your warehouse and your administrative offices) so that, if an accident was ever caused by one of your 50 trucks, the other assets won’t be exposed or made vulnerable to any claims arising from such truck accident;

B)     You’d then do the same thing with your warehouse (i.e., Warehouse, LLC), your administrative offices (i.e., Administrative Office, LLC) and perhaps even certain pieces of plumbing related equipment (i.e., Related Equipment, LLC) which have their own unique, high liability risk factors such as: high voltage generators, tractors, backhoes, lift equipment, etc…).

This way, if any of these different categories of assets ever cause an accident (or are ever involved in an accident), all the other assets in the other LLCs will be neatly protected within their own separate, legal entity.  Is this method completely fail safe?  No.  But it’s a great way to begin doing some risk management for your company.  

Chris Griswold is an attorney in Oklahoma City. He specializes in Commercial Real Estate Law, Business Transactions, and Estate Planning. You can find him on the web at  www.chrisgriswoldpc.com

Protect yourself Personally to Protect your Business

As a Business Risk Advisor, I am often looking over Business Insurance policies, doing risk management worksheets, and asking lots of questions to make sure my clients business' are protected properly.   We talk about carrying proper limits on General Liability, Auto Liability, & workers compensation.  We even talk about Umbrella coverage, that increases these limits even more. Since I and many advisors specialize in commercial only and don't provide  personal insurance, this is one thing that can get overlooked by your personal lines insurance agent.  There is a flood of Internet based insurance companies now providing coverage for Auto, and Homeowners.  There are equally, personal lines insurance agents that do not ask the proper questions to cover the Business Owner as he needs to be covered for his personal exposures.  As the Allstate commercial says, "your 15 minute insurance may not protect you".

Many business owners protect themselves by purchasing high limits of insurance and setting up multiple companies to keep their assets protected.  You need to spend equal time making sure you have your personal coverages set up properly.  (For Example:)

My employee is driving a delivery truck and causes a multi-car accident in which there are several serious injuries.  A large award is given and I have enough coverage with my auto and umbrella liability to pay the claim.  As a backup to keep them away from my personal assets, I have the protection of my corporation or LLC. 

What if I have this same accident on my way home in my personal vehicle and I don't enough insurance limits to cover this claim?  Once they get a judgement, they can go after my personal assets.  If that is not enough they can come after my ownership in my company or it's assets.  The price to increase my personal auto limits is very reasonable and would seem cheap now.

I recommend you look at your personal liability limits under your homeowners insurance, personal auto, and any other recreational vehicles or boats you have, and increase them enough that you can buy a personal umbrella to extend all of those limits to between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000 depending on your needs.  Personal Umbrella's cost start at a couple of hundred dollars a year and go up from there.

Thanks to Chris Griswold, Attorney, for his help on this article.

Commercial Umbrella Liability–What Limit Should I carry?

Umbrellas and Excess policies are important because they give you additional (higher) limits on multiple policies by purchasing one policy.  Most cover General Liability, Automobile, and the Employers’ Liability part of Workers’ Compensation Insurance. Umbrellas are written on their own form and often contain broader coverage than their underlying policies plus they offer drop down coverage for these situations.  Excess policies follow the underlying policies and are only as broad as the polices they encompass.

I have been asked several times what Umbrella Limit a company should carry? While there is no definitive answer to this question, companies should begin their analysis by using the net worth of their company as a guideline.  For example, the more you have, the more you should carry. Companies with substantial property values that have appreciated over time should look to  more than just their financial statements to determine asset values. They should also look at the current market value of their properties. 

We all hear of large losses that put companies out of business, where there could not have been enough coverage purchased to cover the loss. I have personally seen accidents that exceeded $2,000.000 but I have not seen anything over $5,000,000.   This is why I am a proponent of dividing your companies into separate entities if it makes sense to do so. Whether or not you do this, keep in mind that the higher limits you obtain, the less each incremental layer will add to your premium. For example, let’s say the first $1,000,000 of the umbrella  costs $2,000.  The next $1,000,000 might cost $1,000 and the 3rd $1,000,000 might cost $500 for a total premium of $3,500 for a $3,000,000 umbrella.

Whatever you do, take the time to properly protect your company.  You spent a lot of time building your business, so spend the time to make sure you get to keep it.