Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Insurance Pool Presentation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
MCIT risk consultant briefs Houston County on rising insurance costs, cyber and workers'comp trends
Summary
Jim Carrels of MCIT updated Houston County commissioners on statewide insurance-pool trends, including inflation-driven cost pressure, a raised reinsurance attachment point, cyber exposures and workers' compensation experience; commissioners asked questions about tort caps and premium changes.
Jim Carrels, a risk management consultant with MCIT, told Houston County commissioners that inflation and rising reinsurance costs are pushing up insurance pool expenses statewide and that MCIT adjusted its retention levels for 2025.
Carrels said MCIT's reinsurance market pressures prompted raising the attachment point from $850,000 to $1 million and described broader inflationary impacts on property values and rebuilding costs. He also reviewed cyber insurance performance, noting a large spike in cyber claims in 2023 followed by a lower total in 2024, and said MCIT maintains a $500,000 overall cyber limit with sublimits for certain misdirected-payment or extortion losses.
Carrels highlighted the pool structure: MCIT is a county-based risk pool encompassing most Minnesota counties (81 of 87) and is governed by a board of county commissioners. He described dividend philosophy (refunds are possible when the pool performs better than forecast) and said Houston County's 2025 overall increase was roughly 13.5% compared with a pool average increase of about 18.5%.
On workers' compensation, Carrels described the experience-mod approach (counties receive a mod factor relative to peers) and noted Houston County's mod was 0.98 at the time of the presentation, meaning the county was performing slightly better than the average peer. He encouraged use of MCIT's safety and loss-control resources and said counties should notify MCIT immediately upon suspected cyber incidents so response specialists can be deployed.
Commissioners asked clarifying questions about how MCIT treats large civil-rights or jail-related claims that can exceed Minnesota tort-cap limits; Carrels said Minnesota's tort caps (500,000 per person; 1.5 million per occurrence, as referenced) limit state tort recoveries but that some federal civil-rights claims may fall outside those caps and expose counties to additional uninsured liability.
Carrels' presentation concluded with an encouragement to use MCIT resources, including employee-assistance and patrol-specific law enforcement programs, and with a reminder that inflation and reinsurance market volatility remain key cost drivers for the pool.
