Tollway committee recommends $2.57 million property‑insurance renewal, will send item to full board

At its March 20, 2025 meeting, the Finance and Audit Committee of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority recommended that the full board consider renewal of the authority's one‑year property insurance program, with limits and pricing as presented by Chief Financial Officer Kathy Williams.

Williams said the current program — expiring April 1, 2025 — includes blanket property coverage for bridges and structures the authority owns and business‑interruption coverage for loss of toll income. The authority used the CMS master contract to obtain broker services from "Meso Insurance Services" for the renewal procurement, she said.

The proposed renewal would maintain $200 million in total coverage across two layers. Williams said the lead carrier for the first layer is RSUI Indemnity, providing $100 million per occurrence subject to a $1,000,000 retention per loss; a second insurer would provide the additional $100 million. The quoted combined annual premium for the two layers was $1,897,552, representing a premium increase versus the prior term; Williams said the increase in premium was driven primarily by a 9.68 percent increase in value, and that the rate net of value change would have decreased by roughly 2.1 percent. Separately, coverage for central administration and EDP/IT equipment was proposed from a federal insurer at $222,425 for renewal, which Williams said includes terrorism coverage and reflects higher insured values for data processing equipment.

Williams reported that the total premium, including corporate fees and broker fees, would be $2,566,970 for the one‑year term — a 12.95 percent increase over the prior term in total dollars. She said fees of $382,000 are included in the total, of which $264,000 would go to the broker named in the procurement and roughly $117,000 would be paid to a wholesale program; a 10 percent broker program bill (BPP) was also mentioned in the presentation.

Committee members asked about the authority's ongoing use of a specific master‑contract vendor and about prospects for savings from hiring a broker under the authority's own contract. Williams and other staff said the Tollway has advertised a request for proposals for insurance brokerage services; the RFP is expected to be on the street for about two months with a current anticipated bid opening in mid‑May and any award brought to the board later in the year.

Finance recommended acceptance of the one‑year property insurance program with an annual premium plus corporate fees not to exceed $2,566,970, and the committee voted to place the finance item on the full board agenda. The committee's approval was to forward the recommendation for board consideration, not final policy adoption.