The Marshall County government has decided to continue with the same companies for property and casualty insurance.
During Monday morning’s Marshall County Commissioners meeting, three representatives of Gibson Insurance made the recommendation and explained several of the changes planned for the coming year.
Premium rates increased by about 5-percent, according to Gibson Insurance’s General Legal Counsel Brian Kubicki.
“Most of that was due to exposure increases,” says Kubicki. “So that’s an increase in property values, general liability, and particularly your payroll. Your payroll has increased over the last year.”
Other factors in the increases include undervalued building properties such as the Highway Garage and the Marshall County Historical Museum.
To better evaluate coverage options, it was recommended that Marshall County conduct an appraisal on some of its properties. This will avoid undervaluing properties and the risk of not having sufficient insurance as well as overpaying for insurance. Marshall County has not conducted an appraisal in about 15 years.
Another recommendation for inclusion in this year’s crime insurance coverage is what’s called “social engineering fraud.” Kubicki says this type of fraud where someone claims to be someone they’re not.
“Often times, it’s an e-mail from a vendor saying: our banking has changed,” says Kubicki. “We have new wiring instructions, please wire to these numbers. And it ends up not actually being the vendor. So you wire-off to those numbers, and then about 30 days later the vendor is calling, saying: hey, we never got paid. And then you realize it’s gone.”
The actual insurance payment on the property and casualty insurance coverage will be in the neighborhood of $430-thousand for the year.
The Marshall County Commissioners accepted Gibson Insurance’s recommendation to continue using their current carriers for the coverage. Appraisals were considered for the future.
