Of course, it saves the cost of medical bills and lost productivity.  But a solid safety program should – and does – mean more than dollars and cents.  It represents an organization’s commitment to its people, and as cliché as it may sound, people remain the most valuable asset any business can have.

And here’s another hard truth – the best business strategy is one where nobody gets hurt in the first place.

So, naturally, the most successful businesses operate with the highest levels of safety.  That applies equally to the heaviest manufacturing concerns, as well as the most desk-bound service provider.  An employer that respects its people by keeping them safe typically reaps the business rewards.

Evergreen Insurance offers a safety consultant staff unlike other providers.  Armed with educational backgrounds in safety and health, plus hands-on experience with scores of customers, our team brings the skills and insight to improve the safety performance of your business, along with the benefits in premiums that can result.

Customers have appreciated the practical ideas our safety experts have introduced, such as establishing an on-site safety committee to earn discounts on workers’ compensation coverage, raising job-related safety as a core competency to reduce injuries and associated workers comp expenses, and paying closer attention to driver behavior to lower accident rates and the cost of recovery.

We start with an honest assessment of your current program, to evaluate together where any safety-related gaps may exist.  Then, our Safety team walks you through the services and plans that address your risks and opportunities.  We collaborate with you through the entire process to determine the best path forward to ensure the safety of your team and protect your investment.

Can there be an easier, more efficient, and more rewarding way to improve your productivity and profitability than by upgrading your safety program?  Contact us today to learn more.

Copyright 2024 Evergreen Insurance

Evergreen Insurance provides these updates for information only, and does not provide legal advice.  To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

The world of online cyber operations can be complicated.  Add a layer of determining how to adequately anticipate, deter, and recover from attacks, and that world gets appreciably cloudier.  Even to the point where top C-suite executives in major publicly traded companies can hold misperceptions about what their exposure might be, and how their assumptions about protection can be far off the mark.

A report issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago* cites a survey of chief financial officers at companies with more than $1 billion in revenue that had been performed by a major commercial property insurer.  The survey found that 71% of those CFOs believed their insurer would cover “most or all” of the losses their company would suffer in a cyberattack. However, the damages those CFOs said expected to suffer in such an event are not, in fact, covered by typical cyber and property insurance policies.  

Ambiguities about cyber protection can filter to small- or medium-sized organizations, as well, with just as serious an impact.  A key “value add” for such privately held organizations would be adding insurance-backed cyber resources at the time of loss, to include immediate access to cyber forensics, legal, claims management, and public relations services.  These services would speed up the return to normalcy and protect the insured’s balance sheet and income statement.

In the world of cybersecurity, fully understanding your organization’s exposures, and knowing what the right insurance can and cannot cover – both before and after a breach – only becomes more important with each passing year.  Contact the experts at Evergreen to get a clear picture of your cybersecurity situation.

Copyright 2024 Evergreen Insurance

Evergreen Insurance provides these updates for information only, and does not provide legal advice.  To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

*  https://www.chicagofed.org/publications/chicago-fed-letter/2019/426

Every organization needs liability coverage, but it can be easy for non-profits to overlook a type of liability insurance protecting their corporate body as well as their leaders.

Non-profits need insurance to protect themselves from financial loss and liability that can arise during normal operations. This insurance can help cover expenses while affording donors and stakeholders peace of mind. The types of insurance a non-profit may need depend on many factors, including:

• Legal action could have devastating financial consequences for non-profits that often rely on donations and grants. 
• Workers’ compensation/accident insurance can pay for medical expenses, disability, and death benefits for employees injured on the job.
• Cyber liability insurance can protect non-profits from financial losses that may occur after a data breach or ransomware attack.
• The risk of injury to volunteers and third parties can vary depending on the type of operation the organization runs. For example, non-profits that engage in counseling, vocational training, or other kinds of instruction have significant professional liability exposure.
• Non-profits maintaining a positive public perception is key in obtaining grants and charitable donations, so protecting its reputation is essential.

Also, directors and officers liability (D&O) insurance becomes especially important to non-profits because many individuals take on these roles with limited experience, lacking the proper knowledge and appreciation of their legal duties and responsibilities related to the organization.  Non-profit leadership can become a target for litigation related to wrongful acts, such as mismanagement of resources, employment issues, or failure to fulfill fiduciary duties.  

D&O coverage protects those individuals against personal losses, should they be sued as a result of serving in their roles, and also can cover the costs stemming from legal fees, settlements, judgements, and wrongful allegations brought against the non-profit.  

Being smart about non-profit insurance proves that the notion, “No good deed goes unpunished” doesn’t need to be true.  A better idea is that, “No good deed should go unprotected.” Evergreen offers exceptional expertise in coverage for non-profits.  Contact our professionals today to learn more.

Copyright 2024 Evergreen Insurance

Evergreen Insurance provides these updates for information only, and does not provide legal advice.  To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

Cybersecurity remains a core concern worldwide.  Leading experts in the field have cited the following areas warranting particular attention in 2024:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

ChatGPT and generative artificial intelligence have made AI mainstream, but its long-term effect remains difficult to forecast. Experts expect cyberattacks to become increasingly automated and personalized, as well as cheaper and faster to unleash. On a positive note, it is anticipated that AI capabilities will also increasingly augment the efforts of cyber defenders. 

Ransomware

Ransomware remains the dominant risk and loss driver. Advances have led to stronger ransomware groups, including ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) models, driven by AI capabilities reaching multiple regions simultaneously.  Extortion methods are expanding beyond encryption, toward exploitable data for sale, potentially targeting employees, suppliers, customers and other third parties.

Email Compromises

A sharp increase in email attacks are anticipated, where employees are deceived into performing harmful actions, such as making unauthorized payments or sharing sensitive data externally. As scammers seek to prey on comparatively low-hanging fruit, email remains a top attack target, especially since it requires virtually no technical knowledge while reaping very high rewards.

Data Breaches

By the end of 2024, 75% of consumer data worldwide will be covered by privacy regulation, but 60% of all regulated global entities will struggle to comply with intensifying data protection regulation and privacy requirements.  It remains critical to remember that value and criticality of data will only encourage more groups offering hack-for-hire and data theft services. 

Supply Chain Vulnerabilities

Dependence on software and hardware supply chains and digital services will continue to increase, which will continue to attract attackers. Businesses can also expect a greater number of “supply chain attacks as a service,” opening this field to less tech-savvy hacker groups.

The professionals at Evergreen Insurance can work with your business to fashion the best protection coverage for your particular cybersecurity needs.

Copyright 2024 Evergreen Insurance, LLC

Evergreen Insurance, LLC provides these updates for information only, and does not provide legal advice.  To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

The very nature of a transaction means it has an end point.  One side provides a product or service, the other side provides payment, the exchange occurs, and that’s the end of it.

It can be easy to assume that insurance works within that same transactional formula.  The policyholder pays a premium, the insurance provider stands ready to process a claim – if one should ever be filed – and the transaction occurs on a predetermined basis until either side decides to stop.

But insurance as a simple transaction leaves so much missed value on the table.  In the best relationships, advocacy fills those gaps.

Take just one example of advocacy in action.  When a business is considering major changes to its structure, or operations, or business model, or any other significant variable, the insurance aspect needs to be considered as early as possible.  The insurance agent should be consulted with as much urgency and credence as an attorney.  Getting a comprehensive understanding of changes being considered needs to be the first step in the insurance agent ensuring proper protection and coverage.

Say a company plans to transfer ownership to another entity.  The time to bring in the insurance provider is as soon as the idea arises.  Waiting until 30 days before the scheduled transfer only causes undue pressure, opening the door to potential gaps in coverage, holding up progress and causing delays that didn’t need to happen.

Evergreen Insurance practices a stewardship approach to customer support.  We never see relationships with our customers as transactions, and we do not think of our service to you as a commodity.  It has been a central tenet of our business approach to serve as your advocate, a valuable resource, serving your interests in a comprehensive manner.

Regardless of who provides your insurance coverage, make sure they also demonstrate an eagerness to serve as your advocate.

Copyright 2024 Evergreen Insurance, LLC

Evergreen Insurance, LLC provides these updates for information only, and does not provide legal advice.  To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

It’s the All-American way of life to let young people enjoy sports.  The lessons about teamwork, sacrifice, mutual support, developing your individual skills, being gracious in defeat and humble in victory – sports have a special way of teaching them all.

Millions of children participate in organized leagues and pick-up games across the nation, from summers on the baseball diamond to autumns on the football field to winters on the ice rink or basketball court.  But an alarming 4 million of those young people, ages 14 and under, suffer sports-related injuries each year.  This becomes especially troubling when you consider that young athletes are at an increased risk of injury because their bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments are still growing.

Parents and coaches can protect children from sports-related injuries by consistently taking these safety precautions:

• Know and follow the rules of the sport.  They are there to keep all participants safe.
• Make sure each child is in good physical condition before beginning any sport.
• Wear proper apparel and protective gear at all times.
• Know how to use the athletic equipment safely and properly.
• Make sure each participant stretches and warms up before playing.
• To prevent dehydration, have participants drink plenty of liquids before playing.
• Remove a player from the game if he or she is tired or in pain.
• Have participants cool down afterward.
• Make sure that a responsible adult is in attendance at every practice and game.

Should an injury occur, prompt treatment can help prevent further problems.  This includes RICE therapy (rest, ice, compress, and elevate).  A child may need medical attention if any of the following signs are seen:

• An inability or decreased ability to play.
• Visible deformity.
• Severe pain that prevents the use of an arm or leg.
• Symptoms that persist or affect performance.
• Headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, blurry vision, or confusion, which are symptoms of a concussion.  Helmets should be worn, but concussions can still be suffered when wearing one.

Talk with the Benefits professionals at Evergreen Insurance about this topic.  We are here to help you keep your team – and their families – properly protected.  

Copyright 2024 Evergreen Insurance, LLC

Evergreen Insurance, LLC provides these updates for information only, and does not provide legal advice.  To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

Think back to studying fractions in elementary school mathematics.  The common denominator represented a number that could be related to all denominators in a group of fractions.  The numerator could be any number, though.  It didn’t have to be a multiple of others in a group.  You solved the problem to identify the numerator, the variable.

Now you’re all grown up, and you haven’t thought about fractions for years.  But you’re still solving for that variable, and in ways that can impact your organization’s reputation and financial performance.  The common denominator these days is cyber security, but the numerator represents the different ways to achieve it, depending on the size and function of the organization.  Clearly, no one size fits all.

For sophisticated larger organizations, better visibility and accountability should be built into the organization’s cyber policies. Continuous controls monitoring (CCM), which measures cyber security on an ongoing basis based on the spectrum of tools deployed, holds promise for these types of organizations.  

An integrated and holistic measure of cybersecurity, indicating gaps and priorities, can provide an important framework and data source for larger organizations.  This holistic approach also helps to enable responses to increased regulatory oversight being driven by government authorities.

Smaller organizations, of course, are no less at risk.  They can achieve cyber security through services organizations, such as specialized managed security service providers, or more general managed service providers.  Those platforms can help ensure against cyber attacks.  More options remain available, based on cost and complexity.

While every business must guard its information against cyber criminals, the means to do so remain open to customization and interpretation.  To control that variable, talk with the professionals at Evergreen Insurance about cybersecurity protection for your enterprise.

Copyright 2024 Evergreen Insurance, LLC

Adapted from: 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2023/04/27/making-cyber-risk-insurable-disrupting-the-cyber-insurance-industry-in-2023/?sh=6431bdc258eb

Evergreen Insurance, LLC provides these updates for information only, and does not provide legal advice.  To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

As the number of human users of online systems continues to grow exponentially, so does the number of non-human users, like Internet-of-Things (IoT) machines, the “cloud” of digital storage, and so on.

As this growth gallops along with no sign of slowing down or stopping – ever – another chilling fact comes into view.  The attack surface for malware and cyber criminals also gets bigger every second, every minute, every day.  

But a source that in some ways may cause a pause could be used as a deterrent against such potential online damage – artificial intelligence, or AI.

AI-based automation tools are being used by businesses to capture and prioritize their vulnerabilities based on their risk categorization.  AI has the potential to foresee events and provide preventative actions in cybersecurity, deploying widespread countermeasures to giving businesses confidence that they are prepared in case of a cyberattack.

In addition, AI will be able to identify complex assaults, halt them, and prevent future attempts of cybercriminals by establishing their identities and acting against them.   Experts also anticipate advanced automated detection systems that discover assaults with a high probability without the current costs involved.  Automated root-cause analysis to determine why a security flaw exists and how to remedy it is coming, as well.  Some solutions can isolate an attacker and initiate automated incident response to successfully throw them off the network.

Artificial intelligence can be a little scary in some ways.  But its depth, breadth, speed, and ability to deter and stop cyber attacks represents an amazing set of tools that more businesses are sure to adopt in the ongoing fight to protect their people, information, and reputation.

Talk with the professionals at Evergreen Insurance about cybersecurity protection for your enterprise.

Copyright 2024 Evergreen Insurance, LLC.

Evergreen Insurance, LLC. provides these updates for information only, and does not provide legal advice.  To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

Successful businesses pride themselves on being nimble, able to accommodate slight shifts in strategy or compliance. Sometimes, though, the rules get shuffled and reset in ways that can truly test an organization’s ability to withstand the stress. Such a time appears to be upon us right now.

The Pennsylvania Compensation Rating Bureau (PCRB) has instituted major changes to its workers compensation “experience modifier” calculation, which take effect today, April 1, 2024. No joke.

These changes, the first since 2004, carry significant impact to the more-than 60,000 businesses with experience mods across the state. Under the new system, businesses with the strongest performance in avoiding employee injuries will benefit the most, while poorer performers will see higher modifiers. Either way, the PCRB changes will certainly increase the financial impact – positively or negatively – of employee injuries on workers compensation modifiers.

Experience modifiers use historical employee injury data to forecast future risks and adjust workers’ compensation premiums accordingly. Prior to the change now taking effect, the modifier calculation included all employee injury costs up to $42,500, with annual modifier fluctuations capped at 25%. However, the PCRB’s new plan aims to reflect each business’s loss ratio more accurately by more directly recognizing the balance between injury costs and paid premiums. Key changes include:

• By lowering the premium threshold for modifier eligibility from $10,000 to $5,000, approximately 21,000 additional businesses will become eligible for experience rating.
• The injury cap will now be based on an employer’s size, ranging from $10,000 to $300,000, replacing the flat $42,500 injury cap. This ensures a modifier that better corresponds to an employer’s actual injury history.
• Effective April 1, 2026, the PCRB will revise swing limits by eliminating the cap on decreases while setting a new 40% cap on increases, as well as a maximum modification formula for each business. This means a business’s modifier can only rise by 40% or up to its calculated maximum, whichever is lower.

Contact the professionals at Evergreen Insurance to understand how these new workers’ compensation guidelines can impact your business. We consider all the angles when advising our customers, and that is never more important than when the rules change.

Copyright 2024 Evergreen Insurance, LLC.

Evergreen Insurance, LLC. provides these updates for information only, and does not provide legal advice. To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.