Worker's Compensation Insurer Amid Turmoil

Employers Direct Insurance Company will reduce its staff by about 18 percent and lower premiums in an effort to reposition itself in the volatile California worker’s compensation market.

The Agoura Hills -based company, a specialty direct writer of worker’s compensation insurance, will also stop soliciting new and renewal California business as of August 1.

“Employers Direct will continue to provide the quality of service to its current and past policyholders that are the hallmark of its business,” the company said in a statement.

The company cited the strain of escalating medical costs on the workers’ compensation system; increasingly intense price competition; and the uncertainty over the sustainability of the 2003-2004 legislative reforms due to recent Court decisions, as the reasons for the changes.

“The current rapidly changing environment is a reminder of the volatility that saw a catastrophic upheaval in the marketplace just a decade ago,” said Employers Direct CEO James Little.

“We pride ourselves on being on the leading edge of developments in this marketplace. We showed that when we entered the market in 2003 amid a scarcity of industry capacity. Today, we must be equally as bold in acknowledging that premium-writing capacity at today’s unprofitable levels no longer serves the best interests of workers’ compensation stakeholders – neither businesses nor .”

It is anticipated that Employers Direct’s rating with A.M. Best will be affected by these actions.