Vigilant Defense Insurance Services provides commercial insurance services and business solutions for California blue collar businesses. As of 2023, there are 4.25 million small businesses in California. Small businesses represent 99.8% of all businesses in California. They employ 7.4 million employees. All California employers must provide workers’ compensation benefits to their employees under California Labor Code Section 3700. With all the changes in laws in California; we suggest implementing a defensive strategy for your human resource management plan. Vigilant Defense Insurance Services (VDSI) was started by Alex Gilmete who served in the California State Military Reserve and teaches self-defense. He believes in understanding your business’ liabilities (soft targets) and bringing them inside the wire (protection).
“Competition is hard enough. We protect clients from the REAL business killers – unchecked employee litigation and government interference.”
– Alex Gilmete, Founder & CEO
CALFORNIA OVERVIEW
It is impossible to be prepare for every workers comp claim and scenario, however, it is important to partner with an insurance company, who believes in having early discussion and bringing your soft target inside the wire. As of June 13, 2022, California has already seen 13,786 claims filed and a total compensation of $573,895,882. Around 72% of California workers hire workers’ compensation lawyers to handle their claims. Worker’s comp has become a problem for businesses in California, it is just way too expensive and that’s probably a combination of legitimate workers comp claims and also those that are fraudulent, these factors as skyrocketed the overall costs – increasing your experience modifier (X-Mod) and making your business a bad risk for insurance carriers.
Around 72% of California workers hire
workers’ compensation lawyers to handle their claims.
5 WAYS TO START VIGENTLY
The effect of California Worker’s Comp. is unlike anything else in the United States; how it’s written, implemented, governed and litigated leads to significant expenses; and a risk to your profits and to growing your business. Your business needs a workers comp insurance expert. Here are our five suggestions:
- INDEPENDENT AGENT VS. INSURANCE COMPANY:
An Insurance company is a financial intermediaries which offer direct insurance or reinsurance services, providing financial protection from possible future liabilities (definition: European Central Bank). An independent agent or broker sells insurance policies provided by several different insurance carriers, rather than just a single insurance company. Develope a relationship with an insurance broker partner, who will customizing insurance products based on your needs; this will be important.
At Vigilant Defense Insurance services, we utilize a handful of partners to match our clients with the right workers compensation product(s). That includes standard market carriers, Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs), Employer Carve-out Organizations, self-insured programs and captives. Some of these options work outside the traditional California workers comp system to reduce costs.
2. CREATE A DEFENSIVE PLAN:
The single workers comp line item can make it difficult for you to compete for jobs and maintain a healthy profit. if you are operating a business that most carriers consider to be “risky workers comp class codes” like trucking, painting, tree trimming, roofing, staffing, construction and security. Just about any business where the work involves tools, heavy equipment and machinery. Any of those sorts of workers comp codes tend to have greater risk of injuries on the job. It will be important that you and your insurance broker partner discuss future risk and assist in creating a forward facing defensive plan of action.
3. SPECIALIZATION AND EXPERIENCE:
With the state of workers compensation issues in California, as a business you need an expert in workers comp. Workers comp is a complicated area and selecting the right insurance broker partner with the necessary experience, industry relationships and team is vitally important. It takes a specialist to truly clean up a worker’s comp problem. It is important that they have the markets, expertise, experience, knowledge, and they exclusively focus on fixing your workers comp problems.
4. DO THEY UNDERSTAND YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS:
You probably have your insurance broker who has told you that this is “just the way it is with workers comp in California and for a business of your type”. Your broker is probably an “insurance generalist” meaning they provide all kinds of insurance to just about anyone they can. Business, families and individuals. The insurance they provide includes workers comp, general liability, property, auto, cargo, umbrella, and cyber. Most likely they also work with clients to provide all their personal lines of insurance like their personal autos, home, boat, motorcycle and life insurance. They do not have the expertise to resolve your California workers’ comp problem. They are not specialists.
Your insurance broker partner should understand that every business comes with some level of risk from a Worker’s Comp perspective and understands the difference between legitimate truthful claims and bogus claims that run up costs significantly. It is therefore important for them to truly take the time to not only understand your immediate issues; but also takes the time to understand your industry, you/your business, in order to mitigate future issues.
5. THE POWER OF REFERRALS:
And finally, Its important to consider an insurance broker partner who is heavily involved in thier business community in California, who can not only assist in the protection of your business but your business’ growth as well. Running a business in California can be challenging and being able to received introductions to vetted professionals to assist in your growth is equally important – from Attorneys, Financial professionals, IT professionals, Real Estate to Marketing and advertising and more. Your business needs a partner who can fully participate.
Incorporate the power of vigilante customer service into your business – Protecting What Matters Most!
