New Township Insurance Program Will Save $700,000

With the aid of Township staff, Director Bunch’s insurance firm and RWL, an independent outside insurance consultant, The Township recently completed its reevaluation of our insurance coverage and selected a new carrier. The end result is that the Township will receive much better coverage at a $700,000 savings.

However, before we “toot” our horn too loudly everyone should understand this significant improvement was achieved primarily because we could avail ourselves of insurance from the Texas Municipal League (TML). TML was not an option last year; they would not bid because they did not think the Township had enough loss experience. TML is not a broker. TML is a Texas based insurance pool that operates on a nonprofit basis. It is not funded by the state but by the premiums paid by the municipalities who are its members. It has a history of often returning premiums paid-in when losses are low. They will only provide coverage on a one year term. It is hard for the commercial insurance market to compete with such a pool.  

This effort has a history that goes back to last year when the Board was presented a set of insurance proposals only days before our insurance was to expired. The proposed coverage was on our desk when we arrived. But to be fair, this was not an “automatic renewal” as the existing broker obtained over 26 insurance policy bids to consider. The Board was still upset with two things- 1) the Board was never asked about what sort of coverage they thought was needed and 2) we were faced with making a decision with no time to review the recommendations. Given the deadlines upon us, the Board decided to go forward with the proposed coverage with the understanding that the staff would immediately start a new re-evaluation process. 

The following are examples of the areas where we have achieved expanded coverage. I thank Director Bunch’s Firm and RWL in helping the Township achieve this significant benefit. RWL charged $18,000 for the services; an amount well worth it.
 

• $5,000,000 coverage for lost sales and hotel tax revenues from a covered storm like IKE or Sandy. 

• $3,200,000 coverage for our newly installed all-weather sports fields. 

• Landscaping and Trees - TML will cover debris removal and replacement of landscaping (trees/plants).  However, the damaged landscaping must be within 100 feet of a structure listed on the property schedule, there is a $250 limit for each replacement tree or shrub, and the total limit is $10,000.  TMLRFP to evaluate the cost of additional standing timber and expanded definition tree landscaping coverage.

 

• Flood Insurance-Most homeowner and even many commercial insurance policies do not cover flooding. Ours does

Taxpayers should be please that the Board and its staff worked together to achieve substantial improvements to our Township insurance coverage at a much lower cost. We are now protected much better than in any previous year.