Washington Counties risk pool executive warns of rising settlements, urges stronger county risk management

Chuck Boyd, executive director at the Washington Counties Risk Pool, told the Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners on Monday that rising jury awards and larger settlements have strained the pool's finances and that members must prioritize risk management and funding to weather the trend.

The presentation, given during a risk-pool workshop led by Shelley Pierce of Cowlitz County risk management, explained how the pool was formed to allow counties to jointly purchase liability and property coverages and to provide shared risk-management services. Boyd said the pool now serves 24 of Washington's 39 counties and that the organization's mission is "to provide comprehensive and economical risk coverage to reduce the frequency and severity of losses and to decrease the costs incurred in the management and litigation of claims."

Boyd told commissioners the pool's funding model and insurance market changes have pushed its self-insured retention from $100,000 when he started to $3 million per claim today, and that a string of large verdicts and social-inflation-driven settlements has reduced the pool's net position. "There is no way to sugarcoat that. We have had large claims," Boyd said, later adding that the pool expects to "hit the guardrail" in…