Insurance, Risk Management, and Healthcare Benefits Programs for Catholic Schools
Since 1927, Gallagher has been serving Roman Catholic Institutions to provide effective insurance, risk management, and health insurance plans. We experienced a seminal moment in 1957 when a parish school in the Archdiocese of Chicago had a fire that took more than 100 lives of children and several nuns. This will always be remembered as the “Our Lady of Angels” Fire. Risk management and risk financing deficiencies in a local school caused the Archdiocese and Gallagher to work on aggregating risks and developing customized solutions for benefits and P&C.
Our education specialists are constantly working to create new and improved program designs which use creative thinking in order to form robust insurance programs which yield the most competitive premiums, all while following the Catholic Directives. Such values are core to our culture and include passionate service, strategic innovation, and ethical conduct. Across the globe, Gallagher partners with faith-based schools to design customized programs that meet each organization’s specific needs.
Through Gallagher’s partnership with Duc In Altum, we strive to assist in achieving a faith-first vision for Catholic education. Our consultative methodologies include assessments and analytical reviews to determine the goals of each organization and thus allow our team to create specialized programs. Our goal is to give back to organizations that provide so much assistance for our community- our way of ensuring this is through complementary policy reviews, human resources best practice and employee benefits compliance reviews, as well as introduction to our proprietary Roman Catholic specific programs.
Human Resources and Employee Benefits Health Care
From a human resources and employee benefits position, our team of about 300 education specialists’ reviews compliance adherence and implements employee benefits programs designed for the particular school. Our team has developed Reviews that save employers from potential compliance fines (in accordance to the Affordable Care Act, Department of Labor, and IRS) as well as analyses that help determine best program structures for health insurance that include benchmarking.
Among the portfolio of offerings, our education team has developed one-on-one assistance (EAP) for employees and their families, outlined a dedicated marketing plan for health insurance, and extended relationships with human resources firms that provide access to their professional advice. Once a Benefit Program is decided upon, your Gallagher team will create branded open enrollment guides that fit your organization’s unique needs. Following open enrollment, our in-house Employee Support Center (ESC) is here to help your employees and their families with any enrollment questions throughout the year. Gallagher’s ESC includes multi-lingual professionals that are assigned to insured schools in teams of three. This way they remain familiar with plan design. This is an added bonus of taking unnecessary work off the desks of benefits’ administrators at the school that we would highlight as well. We also market every plan every year. Even if a carrier switch is not desired, this tactic allows us to use quotes as leverage and negotiate better terms with current carrier partners. Additionally, our “HR Partner” is offered to all clients as an unlimited hotline for HR related questions.
Roman Catholic Insurance Programs (P&C and Benefits)
Gallagher is proud of its many programs developed for the Roman Catholic community, including The National Catholic Risk Retention Group and the Bishops’ Plan Insurance Company on the P&C side and our Reta Trust and Christian Brothers program’s in the benefits arena. These programs allow for economies of scale, leverage, reduced pricing and customized services.
In terms of The Reta Trust and Christian Brothers Services, we consider these as our premier partners and access to their Benefit offerings through Gallagher is free of charge. With more than 40 years of dedicated service through Reta, the program currently covers over 35,000 members. While Christian Brothers has over 60 years of service the various programs associated combine to serve over 4,500 organizations and over 190,000 lives. These are both designed exclusively for Roman Catholic organizations, including dioceses, schools, charities, religious order communities, hospitals, universities, and other entities listed in the Official Catholic Directory.
Reta Success Story
Reta is designed for employers with over 20 benefits eligible employees. The program is beneficial from an affordability aspect as well as a comprehensive benefits standpoint. Lower rates, a robust network of healthcare providers, administration assistance in areas like wellness and more make it ideal for many Roman Catholic Schools. The current rate adjustment for the Reta Trust is -1.5% while the national trend is 5.8%. On a recent renewal, our team worked with a member of DIA to implement Reta. The school was interested in the program due to the alignment with the Roman Catholic faith, best in class insurance Providers, and increase in purchasing power due to group size. To the school’s surprise, Gallagher and Reta were able to create a program with enhanced coverages and a rate decrease from the standard market of about 9%. This resulted in a large amount of savings that was then able to supplement alternative faith objectives at the school. Reta was established to specifically provide affordable, comprehensive, state-of-the art benefits programs for Roman Catholic employers.
Property & Liability Insurance
From a property and liability insurance perspective, our specialists work alongside Catholic schools with a consultative approach to implement and manage program development. We review coverages such as General Liability, Educators Legal Liability, Abuse and Molestation, Cyber Liability, Crime Insurance, Fiduciary Liability, Property Insurance and so much more. While the Reta program is only applicable in the health insurance realm, Christian Brothers Services is also a property and liability insurance provider through its national offering, Christian Brothers Risk Pooling Trust. Our team works to ensure each school is partnered with the appropriate insurance carriers that have aligned goals in regards to the Catholic faith, while also ensuring that coverage limits are adequate, deductibles are satisfactory, premiums are competitive, and there are not any uninsured areas or improper exclusions. Our partner schools experience outstanding customer care to facilitate a smooth experience from start to finish. It is crucial to carry proper insurance coverages and limits to avoid uninsured loss. Through our expertise and dedication to our clients, we ensure the proper coverage is continuously in place.
Property and Liability Insurance Success Stories
Through our review and analysis approach, we have successfully implemented proper coverages and limits for many schools which were previously insufficient. We have also helped schools understand how insurance carriers and their forms are not all the same – they are not all intended to cover the risks associated with a school and often coverage is incorrectly administered. Working hand in hand with carriers such as Christian Brothers Risk Pooling Trust our team helps consult and administer tailored insurance programs. At Gallagher we have created a benchmarking platform called Gallagher Drive. This software houses the carriers information including insurance limits and premiums associated with your peers. This acts as a guideline to give you greater information for context and using all insights determine the right programs to implement.
Below you will see an example of using Gallagher Drive to examine best strategies for cyber liability coverage. We are currently experiencing a very volatile market and Gallagher Drive helps our team stay up to date in an ever changing market. We also have examples that help us determine best fit carriers, terms, limits and pricing along with new carrier opportunities.
Gallagher is a proud partner of DIA and we look forward to working with the association’s members in order to design health insurance plans and property/casualty insurance plans that fit the specific needs of member schools.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or inquiries.
Brandon Cole, CPCU, CRM
National Director
Direct: 949.349.9871 | Mobile: 720.951.5302
Brandon_Cole@ajg.com
Alec Grollman, CLCS
Producer
M: 310.351.1259 | D: 818.539.1240
Alec_Grollman@ajg.com