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Council approves annual insurance renewals; city sees net decrease after deductible reduction
Summary
The city renewed multiple insurance lines with broker USI; staff reported a roughly 4% overall premium decrease and reduced wind/hail deductibles from 5% to 3%, improving the city's catastrophe exposure.
The Amarillo City Council approved the city's annual insurance renewals after a presentation by the city's broker, USI Southwest, on market conditions and changes in coverage.
Rob Pridemore of USI told the council the marketplace has been hard for property insurance but that the city's renewal produced a roughly 4% overall premium decrease; property coverage savings accounted for most of that reduction. Pridemore said the city reduced wind and hail deductibles from 5% to 3%, which lowers the city's out‑of‑pocket exposure for large claims. He noted that Texas remains one of the more difficult property markets nationally because of hail, wildfire and hurricane risk.
Mitch Norman (city staff) introduced USI and said the policies cover multiple required lines and that policy terms run July 1 through June 30. USI highlighted that the city’s renewals benefit from consolidated placement and a broker-of-record approach implemented in 2020. USI cited roughly $421,000 in premium savings on property coverage and said the reduction in deductibles decreased the city’s potential deductible exposure on several municipal properties by millions of dollars (for example, the Civic Center and airport were discussed in staff slides).
Council members asked about rising excess workers’ compensation costs and were told that a spike in loss ratios stems in part from COVID-era first‑responder claims and earlier large claims; staff expects loss ratios to normalize over time. Cyber liability coverage was also discussed; USI said cyber insurance protects against extortion, ransom, data-exfiltration and invoice-manipulation risks and noted a cyber premium line included in the renewal (USI cited roughly $58,073 for that line).
Council voted to approve the insurance package as presented.
What it means: The renewals keep the city covered for property, liability, workers’ compensation and cyber exposures while lowering some catastrophe risk by reducing wind/hail deductibles; several council members emphasized continuing safety and loss-control efforts to moderate future workers’ compensation impacts.
