Property and Casualty Insurance
The pool participants market a wide variety of commercial and personal lines
insurance products through 16 branch offices, which actively write business
through independent agents in 41 states. The pool participants’ products
are marketed exclusively through a network of 2,071 local independent agency
relationships through 3,997 offices. The pool participants primarily focus on
the sale of commercial lines of property and casualty insurance to small and
medium-sized businesses, which are considered to be policyholders that pay less
than $100,000 in annual premiums. The pool participants also seek to provide
more than one policy to a given customer, because this “account selling”
strategy diversifies risks and generally improves underwriting results.
Although a majority of the pool participants’ business is generated
by sales in the Midwest, Employers Mutual’s branch offices are located
across the country to take advantage of local market conditions and opportunities,
as well as to spread risk geographically. Each branch office performs its own
underwriting, claims, marketing and risk management functions according to policies
and procedures established and monitored by the home office. This decentralized
network of branch offices allows the pool participants to develop marketing
strategies, products and pricing that target the needs of individual marketing
territories and take advantage of different opportunities for profit in each
market. This operating structure also enables the pool participants to develop
close relationships with their agents and customers.
Although each branch office offers a slightly different combination of products,
the branches generally target three customer segments:
a wide variety of small to medium-sized businesses, through a comprehensive
package of property and liability coverages;
businesses and institutions eligible for the pool participants’ target
market, safety dividend group and EMC Choice programs (described below), which
offer specialized products geared to their members’ unique protection
needs; and
individual consumers, through a number of personal lines products such as homeowners,
automobile and umbrella coverages.
The pool participants write a number of target market, safety dividend group
and EMC Choice programs throughout the country, and have developed a strong
reputation for these programs within the marketplace. These programs provide
enhanced insurance protection to businesses or institutions that have similar
hazards and exposures, and are willing to implement loss prevention programs.
These groups include public schools, small municipalities, petroleum marketers,
contractors and mobile home parks. As an example, the pool participants write
coverage for approximately 1,500 school districts throughout the Midwest. These
programs have been successful because they offer risk management products and
services that are targeted to the needs of the group members through a local
independent agent.