Pinnacol in Colorado to Drop Workers’ Comp Rates 7.4% in 2018

The Pinnacol Assurance board has approved a 2018 decrease in workers’ compensation rates that will average 7.4 percent for the insurer’s 57,000-plus Colorado policyholders.

The decrease will become effective Jan. 1, 2018, and will make for the third straight year Pinnacol has dropped rates. The board also announced its intent to issue a general divided of roughly $50 million to policyholders in 2018, marking its third straight year of general dividends.

While the Colorado Division of Insurance approved a 12.7 percent rate decrease for 2018, Pinnacol uses a longer historical experience period — 10 years, as opposed to two — to evaluate trends and determine its rates, according to the company.

The longer period prevents Pinnacol from reacting to short-term volatility, and accounts for the difference between Pinnacol’s rate and that approved by the DOI. In the two prior years, Pinnacol reduced its rates in excess of the approved DOI rates, the company said.

Barring a significant and unexpected financial loss in the fourth quarter of 2017, the dividend will match the $50 million Pinnacol distributed last year, according to the company. The dividend will be issued by the end of April 2018.