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Clay County staff recommends switching property coverage to Chubb; commission gives staff consensus to proceed
Summary
County staff and broker CBIZ presented a property and casualty insurance renewal that offered two options; staff recommended Chubb for property and inland marine, Travelers for casualty lines, and a new cyber provider. Commissioners gave general consensus to proceed and staff will return next week for formal approval.
County staff recommended that the Clay County Commission move the county’s property and inland marine insurance to Chubb while keeping Travelers for casualty lines and changing the county’s cyber coverage to a new carrier, after a presentation from insurance broker CBIZ.
“Right now we are still what's considered a hard market,” CBIZ account executive Nate Beyerly told commissioners, describing a marketplace marked by rising rates, shrinking capacity and carriers shifting more risk onto policyholders. Beyerly said reconstruction costs, local severe-weather activity and increasing claim frequency and severity are driving rate pressure.
Beyerly said CBIZ marketed a standalone Chubb property program against Travelers’ multi-line package and found Chubb’s property pricing and wind/hail deductible structure compelling; he said the Chubb option would yield an 11% increase year-over-year on the county’s total premium in the quote presented, a change he characterized as “below market” compared with broader public-entity benchmarks in the current cycle, which he placed closer to 15%–30% in many cases. Christine Pulls, the county’s risk manager, introduced the broker and described the county’s multi-department effort to assemble renewal data.
Commissioners asked whether self-insuring any lines would make sense in the future; CBIZ and staff said self-insurance or higher self-insured retentions are options that require significant reserves, administrative changes and historical claims analysis before the county could adopt them. Beyerly noted that some carriers participate more readily when an entity chooses higher retention levels (he used $250,000 as an example retention level that can change market participation) and cautioned that recent carrier practice has shifted wind/hail deductibles toward percentage-based models that are harder to budget for.
Administrator and staff recommended the Chubb (property/inland marine) plus Travelers (casualty) combination and a change in cyber provider from Cowbell to an unnamed new carrier; staff asked for commission direction and said it would return next week with formal documents for approval. The commission signaled general support for staff’s recommendation during discussion; no formal vote on the renewal was taken at this meeting.
