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MCIT warns of volatile reinsurance costs, rising cyber claims and emerging PTSD liability during county briefing
Summary
Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trust told Wright County commissioners that property reinsurance and cyber claims have become more volatile, and the pool is monitoring potential increases in PTSD-related law enforcement claims following recent statutory changes.
Garrett Claybaugh, executive director of the Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trust (MCIT), briefed Wright County commissioners on Tuesday about insurance trends affecting county governments, including rising property reinsurance premiums, variable cyber losses and early signals of PTSD-related liability in law enforcement. Claybaugh explained that MCIT is a joint powers public risk pool covering 81 counties and about 400 other local entities. He said the pool is not-for-profit, governed by a nine-member board of county peers and returns excess resources to members when funds permit. On reinsurance, Claybaugh said international market factors—weather-related losses, construction inflation and wider economic trends—have driven sharp increases in property-reinsurance costs in recent years. He noted MCIT’s total insured values have climbed to roughly $9.2 billion and that those exposure increases factor into contribution-rate calculations. MCIT’s cyber claims have shown particularly large year-to-year variability, Claybaugh said: a spike from about $145,000 in one year to $1.7 million the next, then a drop again. He told the board one 2023 incident affected 19 members but that MCIT was able to limit damage through contracted national experts. Commissioners asked about PTSD-related liability for law enforcement after recent state law changes. Claybaugh said the pool is “still early in the process” of tracking claims tied to that shift and that cities appear to be seeing more cases; MCIT is monitoring workers’ compensation and law-enforcement liability data and has engaged with the Minnesota Sheriffs Association. Claybaugh highlighted available member services: loss-control consultants assigned to Wright County (Alethia Sheridan and Joe Siminski), a relaunched member website, a claims-data portal with reports for safety committees, low-cost or no-cost training (49 county staff registrations in 2024) and a new quarterly risk-management group for county risk managers. Board members thanked MCIT and Claybaugh; the presentation closed with recognition of Claybaugh’s service and a comment that he plans to retire in the near future.
