Small businesses face many challenges when it comes to the availability of and access to workers’ compensation insurance.
Many are unaware of what is available in the marketplace, the security it can provide, and how seamless the insurance process can truly be.
“There’s a lack of knowledge and awareness,” said Hannah Sullivan (pictured above), head of growth at SolePro. “Many sole proprietors and small businesses with few employees don’t even know if they’re required to have workers’ comp. If they find that insurance is not required, they’re more likely not purchase a policy, but what they may not know is that they could still be held liable in the event of an accident.”
New businesses with a lack of prior coverage history also face obstacles when it comes to identifying exposures and pricing, creating a drawn-out quoting process.
Meanwhile, agents and carriers are naturally look for high commissions, making writing for smaller businesses less appealing. Hannah Sullivan added that this is why some enforce minimum premium thresholds for various industry class codes.
“If the business is so small, an agent’s only option might be to resort to the assigned risk pool. With that comes long wait times, carrier turnover and mid-term audits,” said Hannah Sullivan.
SolePro is hoping to address this with a product for single owners with no employees. The ghost policy, or minimum premium policy, provides coverage on or off the job, increasing overall accessibility.
The development of comparative rating solutions has also enhanced the access to coverage for both agents and carriers.
“Comparative raters allow agents to quote in one single environment, so they don’t have to go to multiple carriers and wait to get multiple quotes,” Jade Sullivan (pictured below), head of innovation at SolePro explained. “The opportunity to instantly quote, bind and service within the platform is a major plus.”
“In today’s environment we like things to be instant and easy,” said Jade Sullivan. “If you can do everything in once place, why would you go to five different carriers and enter the same information five different times?”
On the carrier side, Hannah Sullivan mentioned that integrating with an insurtech platform provides benefits when it comes to quoting and binding.
“Since carriers are ever-changing, policies must be rewritten every few years as well,” Jade Sullivan noted. “Given the fact that it’s a huge hassle to write within the assigned risk pool and quotes can take days to be received, agents don’t like working through them.”
“The assigned risk pool offers no coverage whatsoever with their workers’ comp ghost policies,” said Hannah Sullivan. “This causes both agents and insureds a headache.”
The firm has attempted to address this by packaging ghost policies with a 24-hour accident policy, providing a holistic protection plan.
Writing workers’ comp business can be a big job and requires a lot of information. With so many different documents and procedures required, which in turn vary from state to state, Hannah Sullivan added that automation is critical.
“Outside of creating a streamlined system, we also strive to maintain a streamlined process,” Jade Sullivan added. “With the help of automation, agents can facilitate business faster, forget about laborious processing, and build meaningful relationships with workers’ comp clients.”
For more information on the ins and outs of workers' comp visit www.solepro.com.
