Education-Specific Insurance Expertise

We believe that Fred C. Church can make a difference for your insurance and risk management program, based on our experience, our expertise, and our unique relationships with our education clients.

The following are some of the unique benefits we believe the Education Division of Fred C. Church can bring to your institution.

Account Executive Team
Hands-On Service Philosophy
Individual Client Flexibility
Benchmarking
Industry Training/Updates
Risk Management Service Capabilities
Insurer Relationships

Account Executive Team

Unlike most other brokers with just one senior level account person supported by several other less experienced, lower level people from different departments and even different offices, Fred C. Church believes in dedicating our best people to our best clients.  Benefits which this provides to a client include: 

• Access any time on any issue to a senior-level client service person
• Ability to tap into over 100 years of insurance experience
• Idea-sharing and discussion with three different points of view

Hands-On Service Philosophy

The Fred C. Church team will totally integrate ourselves into your risk management and insurance program.  Through visits to campuses, frequent communication, and relationship development with the institution’s key risk management and insurance players, we will develop in-depth knowledge of how risk and risk management work at your school.  This approach tends to be especially beneficial to a dedicated risk manager who has such a wide range of constituencies and responsibilities.  Examples of our involvement include:

• Attendance at campus or departmental Safety Committee meetings – as invited and appropriate.
• Involvement in insurer visits (underwriting and loss control) to each campus, ensuring optimum guidance and communication (“spin”).
• Coordination of risk management meetings on a regular basis (perhaps monthly to begin with and then continuing on a mutually agreeable frequency) with the Fred C. Church senior team to get updates on 1) your specific school, 2) the insurance industry, and 3) any specific outstanding issues.

Individual Client Flexibility

Each of our clients’ risk management/insurance decision-maker has unique needs.  Not only do the needs of the institutions vary, but the responsibilities of the individual decision makers range from being Human Resource Directors and CFO’s with myriad other high-level functions, to full-time Risk Managers with a more in-depth focus in much larger institutions.  We work diligently to shape our services to best fit each client’s own agenda as opposed to spending energy squeezing the client’s needs into our model – as other brokers sometimes do.  Some of the ways we do this are:

• Fred C. Church maintains insurer relationships with every property/casualty carrier in the education market, enhancing the likelihood of the best possible match between each client and their underwriters.
• An annual Stewardship Report is prepared individually for each client, depending on the client’s wishes for timing, content and audience.
• Premium projections are provided for client budgeting purposes on an accurate and timely basis.  They are developed through discussions with underwriters, client exposure updates, and careful insurance market analysis.
• A broker compensation package is tailored to the clients’ wishes, with the flexibility to be based on commissions, fees, performance metrics or any combination.

Benchmarking

Because of our organizational commitment to educational  institutions and the number of great clients we have, benchmarking has become a very valuable tool for those clients.  In fact, we have recently hired the newest member of the Fred C. Church Education Division to work exclusively on special projects for our education clients – primarily benchmarking reports and other analyses of areas such as cost, coverage, limits, deductibles and exposures to help our clients be sure their programs and policies are the best they can be.   Always respecting each client’s confidentiality, we are able to compare relevant information which is valuable to everyone.  Specific ways in which we believe this could be helpful to your institution are:

• Comparing policy rates using common exposure bases to evaluate the competitiveness of you institutions premiums, and then leveraging that information with underwriters to negotiate the best possible deal for you
• Analyzing limits, deductibles, and the related rating credits or debits to ensure the optimum balance of risk retention and premium costs
• Comparing building value costs per square foot among similarly constructed buildings at your institution, and comparing the data to other institutions, to evaluate adequacy of replacement values and proper limits
• Evaluating different insurance mechanisms used by various institutions to protect similar risks, to identify whether your school is best served by traditional insurance or alternative market solutions

Industry Training/Updates

As part of the Fred C. Church package of services, we would include training and education as mutually agreed upon – that which is productive from a risk management standpoint for the institution, and practical based on the schedules and priorities of your school’s staff.  These could range from risk management roundtables, held at Fred C. Church as well as other members of the administration, to on-campus training sessions on defensive driving.  Sessions would either be led by Fred C. Church directly using our in-house risk management expertise, or coordinated by Fred C. Church using insurance company or other outside resources.  Subjects of prior sessions Fred C. Church has provided to other clients at no additional cost include:

• Discrimination & harassment training for supervisors
• Building & operations inspection training for facilities
• Defensive driving programs
• Evaluation of procedures and requirements related to insurance and indemnification for outside contractors, subcontractors and other third parties on campus
• Attendance and presentations at Safety Committee meetings
• Risk management roundtable sessions on subjects such as Foreign Studies, Environmental Liability, Athletic Liabilities, Sexual Harassment and Disaster Planning

Risk Management Service Capabilities

• Risk Management Consultative Service -- Fred C. Church has a full-time Risk Management Consultant with over 30 years experience working for four different insurance carriers.  This individual is well versed in both property and casualty exposures and controls.  Our clients can utilize this service free of charge to assist them as a technical resource and a liaison with their insurance carriers.
• Policies Programs and Procedures -- Our Risk Management Department assists our clients with organizing formal safety programs and procedures customizing them to their particular needs to include written programs that will assist our clients in developing a true safety culture, thus protecting their employees and managing their overall risk.
• Regulatory Compliance -- A review of our client's overall programs is undertaken regarding their compliance with the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, Department of Transportation, National Fire Protection Association and Environmental Protection Agency rules and regulations.  The Risk Management Department is used as a resource in gathering technical information on regulatory changes and requirements so that our clients are kept up-to-date thus the potential for fines is reduced considerably.
• Training Programs/Safety Videos -- Fred C. Church is a member of various safety organizations to include The National Safety Council, The Safety & Health Council of Northern New England as well as the National Fire Protection Association. As members, we have access to all of the training programs and safety videos offered by these organizations. We also have our own resources available in house as well as the ability to coordinate the services available through our various insurance companies.   Our Risk Management Consultant reviews with our clients, their specific training needs, once this has been completed; the appropriate training programs and videos are assimilated into their overall safety service plan.
• Risk Control Service Plan -- Our ultimate goal is to help control our clients overall costs and reduce the potential for accident and or injury.  A formal written Risk Control Service Plan can be developed for our clients in conjunction with the insurance carrier with the intention of reducing frequency and potential severity off accidents or property damage.  Specific objectives are established, along with action steps and accountability.  A timeframe is organized and monitored throughout the course of the year.
• Safety Programs -- We at Fred C. Church have found that the best way that our clients can control overall costs is to implement a formal safety program and organize a safety committee. With these two variables in place our clients are able to monitor their overall safety endeavors.  The Risk Management Department has the risk management tools available to assist our clients with the organization of both of these areas, supplying all of the necessary information and documentation, and actually participating at the safety committee meetings.
• Special Projects -- Depending upon the specific needs of the client we can assist them with the organization and execution of various safety related projects. The projects may include; Job Safety Analysis, Accident Investigation, Accident Analysis, Ergonomic Appraisals, Work Station Evaluations, Property Conservation Programs, Fleet Safety Programs and Industrial Hygiene Studies. All of the above risk assessment and risk improvement activities are designed to assist our clients in controlling their overall cost of doing business, reducing the possibility of accidents and injury to their employees, and bring about an overall safety culture throughout their organization.
• MyWave -- One very important risk management tool, available through the Fred C. Church agency is the MyWave Portal.  It is our clients personalized web site that allows them to effortlessly click, connect, and communicate with the Fred C. Church agency.  It is designed to offer clients time-saving tools and resources that build convenience into managing their everyday work tasks.  Whether you want to collaborate with our agency online, quickly access timely news, information, and resources, or connect with over 100,000 peers in your industry, this is the place to be.  It is easily accessible, hard-working, and just one of the many value-added services available to clients when they partner with us.

Insurer Relationships

Fred C. Church works with virtually every insurance company in the world, either in a direct relationship, with intermediaries, or through our Assurex partnership.  Following is a list of insurers with whom we currently have meaningful amounts of business and who are specifically committed to the education market:

• ACE/CIGNA
• Affiliated FM
• AIG
• AIM Mutual
• Chubb & Son
• CNA
• FM Global
• Hanover 
• Hartford
• MEMIC 
• OneBeacon
• Peerless
• Travelers
• United Educators
• Utica National
• Wausau