As an agent, you can rest easy when your customers choose SFM. Our focus on workers’ compensation insurance helps us provide the highest level of service and expertise when your clients need it most.

When you’re helping clients understand their options for workers’ compensation coverage, here are a few points you can share about the advantages of going monoline and choosing SFM:

• Service
  First and foremost, SFM’s experienced and dedicated professionals are known for responsive and reliable customer service.
• Claims expertise
  Our experienced claim representatives are skilled in helping injured workers get the best possible treatment outcomes and return-to-work results. With access to in-house doctors, nurses and attorneys, and a team-based approach, they have the resources to skillfully handle even the most challenging claims.
• Easy injury reporting
  Easily report work injuries 24/7 by phone or online. Injured workers who want immediate healthcare advice can speak with a registered nurse when they report by phone.
• Claim cost containment
  Provider networks and in-house medical bill review staff help keep claim costs under control, which helps limit premium increases. In-house fraud and subrogation specialists also produce recoveries for policyholders.
• Loss prevention
  Our loss prevention staff and online resources help policyholders prevent injuries over time, keeping premiums in check.
• Online resources
  Digital solutions make it easy for customers to access claim information, pay bills, and more.
• Separation from package
  Having a separate carrier for workers’ compensation prevents losses from affecting the package coverage underwriting, and vice versa.

Keeping customers satisfied

SFM provides unrivaled service and expertise that’s trusted by thousands of employers, and our industry-leading retention rate of over 96% speaks for itself. For more information on the benefits we have to offer your customers, contact your SFM underwriter.

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SFM’s new Safety Orientation Success Guide helps employers protect a group at high risk for work injuries: new employees.

According to SFM claim data, employees are at higher risk for injuries during their first six months on the job. Policyholders often tell us that training new employees to prevent injuries is challenging.

To provide additional resources for employers, the loss prevention team developed a step-by-step guide for policyholders.

A valuable tool to educate and help reduce job injuries

The Safety Orientation Success Guide offers valuable information that can be used in many industries. Here is a sample of what’s included:

• Actions employers can take to lower new employee injury risk
• Guidance about return on investment (ROI) of training
• Assessing hazards
• Training methods
• Lifecycle of training – including initial general safety, job-specific safety, and ongoing training
• Safety Training Checklist

SFM also has a library of helpful safety resources to use for training in multiple industries, and many of the industry-specific resources can be found in one place on the employee safety orientation page of sfmic.com.

Partners in safety

The Safety Orientation Success Guide is the second in a series of resources (see also the Safety Committee Success Guide) designed by SFM’s loss prevention team to help policyholders make their workplaces safer.

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We’re coming up on three years since we entered the state of Kansas in September 2020. Over that time, our agency partners there have helped us write more than 500 policies for nearly $2 million in written premium. In reaction to this success, SFM is actively expanding our Kansas team.

“We are happy to bring new talent to the team in response to our growth in Kansas,” said Shawn Miner, SFM VP of Regional Business. “We pride ourselves on our unbeatable service, and we’re pleased to be able to provide it to more policyholders than ever there.”

In late 2022, we answered agents’ requests to write more business with us in Kansas by expanding our appetite to policies over $25,000 in premium. Shortly after, our team attended the 2023 KAIA Annual Convention where we once again received excellent feedback from agents about our ease of doing business and quick response times from our underwriters. Agent feedback is valuable to us as we continue to expand our services.

One year in Indiana

SFM exceeded our first-year goal on policies, premium and agency appointments in Indiana, and our forecast remains high for growth in the state in 2023.

Becoming a member of the Big I Indiana and PIA of Indiana, and attending both conventions over the past year, has allowed our team to network with agencies around the state. We’ve built some great relationships, and again, our Indiana team has heard from agents that they’re impressed with our broad appetite, easy online quoting, and quick turnaround times. These positive interactions have us eager to see what 2023 brings for SFM in the state.

Open for business in Tennessee

SFM has opened our doors for business in Tennessee. We set our sights on the state in 2022 and have begun appointing new agencies in 2023.

A recently established agency partnership in Tennessee is drawing interest to SFM in our newest state, and we look forward to making more connections around the state and meeting agents through our involvement in the “Big I” Insurors of Tennessee.

SFM is now licensed in 34 states. You can view a complete state coverage list on the account types and territory page of the SFM website.

“The expansion has been a fun initiative for SFM, as our teams enjoy getting to experience new states and learning how agency partners do business in these territories,” said Cody Allen, SFM Business Development Specialist. “The agencies we’ve connected with in recent years have really delivered for us and we appreciate the partnerships.”

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You may be wondering why you received a notice of cancellation on a current policy indicating a reason of “audit noncompliance.” This notice means that the policyholder failed to complete the premium audit for the prior term.

SFM sends out two mailed notices instructing the policyholder to complete the required annual premium audit. Both the policyholder and the agent receive these communications. If the policyholder does not respond by completing the audit by the specified deadline, this is considered audit noncompliance.

Once a policy becomes noncompliant, SFM sends out a notice of cancellation to both to the policyholder and the agent, specifying the number of remaining days before the current term policy will be canceled. This timeline is determined by state rules (ranging from 30-60 days). To avoid final cancellation, the policyholder would then need to complete the prior term premium audit within the specified time range.

If the policyholder does not comply and complete the premium audit by the specified deadline, the current term policy will be final canceled, and both the policyholder and agent will receive a copy of this cancellation notice.

Contact the underwriter to reinstate a policy canceled for audit noncompliance

When a policy goes into cancellation, even if the insured completes the prior term audit, the policy may remain canceled unless the agent contacts the underwriter.

If the premium audit is completed within the first cancellation notice timeframe (30-60 days, depending on the state), the policy will be automatically reinstated. In these cases, no further action is required from the policyholder or agent.

However, if a policy final cancels due to audit noncompliance, the policyholder should complete the premium audit right away and the agent will need to contact the underwriter to consider reinstating the policy.

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SFM is planning to attend several industry events over the next few months:

• April 20-21 Nebraska Safety Council Conference
• May 2-3 Minnesota Safety & Health Conference
• May 4-5 PIA of Indiana 2023 Annual Convention
• May 10-12 Minnesota Association of School Business Official Annual Conference
• May 16-17 Big I Independent Insurance Agents of Wisconsin InsurCon2023
• June 15-16 Big I Independent Insurance Agents of South Dakota Young Agents River Days
• June 22-23 Iowa Workers’ Compensation Advisory Committee Annual Symposium
• July 12-13 Combined Agents of America Summer Series

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As I look at our extraordinary results over the past 12 months, I’m struck with gratitude for the unwavering belief our partners have shown in SFM. Through the whirlwinds of a global pandemic and continued economic uncertainty, policyholders are consistently choosing to stay with SFM, and independent agents are bringing more and more new accounts into the fold.

Ever since the opening chords of the pandemic, we’ve heard the refrain: “When will things get back to normal?” Well, after three years and countless bewildering developments, I’m convinced that pre-pandemic “normalcy” isn’t on its way back anytime soon. In its place, we’re discovering new realities that present us with new challenges. I’m confident that facing these challenges together will bring out our collective best. As new realities emerge, let me assure you that SFM will be a steadfast, positive partner.

We work hard every day to live up to our reputation for providing the best customer service in the business. Our commitment to service excellence is the foundation for the success we share, and I believe the results will bear that out every time.

Reflecting on the positives of the past year

As we work to finalize year-end numbers for 2022, some remarkable highlights have emerged:

• SFM’s policyholder retention level of over 96% demonstrates industry-leading customer loyalty
• New business continues to come in at a record pace
• Audit additional and endorsement premium revenue continues to track ahead of our projections
• Impact from medical inflation has been mild
• Paid losses on older claims have come in better than expected, signaling prior year loss reserve releases
• Policyholder surplus generation has exceeded expectations, furthering our commitment to growing surplus faster than premium
• Our 2021 combined ratio of 90% made it 11 consecutive years below 100, and 2022 is on track to make it 12 in a row 

New mission statement, renewed dedication to our continuing mission

As we build on our foundation of exemplary service, we’ve taken some time to reflect on the words we use to describe this commitment. We saw an opportunity to develop language that expresses the “why” that motivates each of us to make a positive impact through our work. After careful consideration, we’ve updated our mission statement to:

While the language itself is new, the sentiment that it conveys has been central to our company culture all along. We’ve always believed in taking care of employers and their employees, and through these words, we reaffirm the principles we’ve held since the very beginning.

I would like to thank our valued agency partners for sharing our dedication to service, safety and positive results for our customers. We look forward to succeeding together for many years to come.

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SFM’s territory expansion hits a new high as we broaden our appetite in Kansas and continue efforts to grow in Tennessee in 2023.

Agents asked, we answered

SFM is expanding our appetite in Kansas to include policies over $25,000 in premium starting in 2023.

We’ve had tremendous success with small business since we entered the state in 2020 and our team has built terrific relationships with Kansas-based agency partners. Over the past two years we’ve written approximately 500 policies across 142 governing class codes, totaling $2 million in in-force premium.

The feedback from agency partners about our service model and ease of doing business has been overwhelmingly positive, with several agencies telling us we’re their go-to work comp carrier and requesting we write some of their larger accounts. We are excited to provide this increased appetite to our partners so that they can offer our top-notch services to more Kansas employers.

A new year, a new state

SFM will start writing business in Tennessee in the first half of 2023 and we’ve already begun appointing new agency partners.

SFM’s territory expansion team continues to meet with key industry contacts in the state to develop relationships with regulators, agencies and agency associations. The company recently joined the “Big I” Insurors of Tennessee.

SFM is now licensed in 34 states. You can view a complete state coverage list on the account types and territory page of the SFM website.

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Employers don’t always know how important it is to report work injuries immediately.

As an agent, you can provide vital information on how timely reporting can impact the trajectory of a workers’ compensation claim.

The following are just a few of the benefits of reporting injuries right away:

• Start the claim off on the right foot.
  Reporting injuries immediately lets workers know their employer wants to see that they’re taken care of. It also gives their claims representatives time to gather all the necessary information to determine whether a claim is compensable.
• Avoid state penalties.
  States limit the amount of time between when an employer learns of an injury, and when the claim is accepted or denied. If the claim isn’t reported to SFM in time to meet the deadline, the employer could face fines.
• Get more out of accident investigations.
  Reporting right away gives employers and claims representatives the best chance of finding out exactly what happened while it’s still fresh in the minds of the employee and witnesses. This helps employers take steps to ensure that a similar injury doesn’t happen again. It also helps claims representatives learn whether the employee’s account of what happened is accurate and identify any third parties that might have been at fault.
• Take full advantage of the nurse option.
  Injured workers can get a treatment recommendation from a registered nurse when employers report immediately through the SFM Work Injury Hotline. This can prevent unnecessary hassles and costs and get the injured worker the best care for the injury — whatever that may be.

Encourage employers to report injuries to SFM first

To reap the benefits of reporting right away, it’s important to have employers report injuries directly to SFM first, rather than your agency. If you would like to be notified immediately anytime a claim is reported, you can set up alerts in SFM Agency Manager (SAM). Click on “manage alerts,” and then select the “FROI received” alert option.

For your clients, our Work injury claim packet is a handy resource that employers can reference to help them report and manage workplace injuries.

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You can now set up AutoPay and one-time payments for your customers while binding new business in SAM.

Quick tips:

• To set up payments, you’ll need to have your customers’ financial account information on hand when you bind.
• We accept credit cards for accounts under $10,000 in premium.
• For AutoPay, we require that you keep a consent form signed by the policyholder on file at your agency. You do not need to return this form to SFM.
• Your customer will be able to manage AutoPay after binding by creating an account at sfmic.com/pay.
• Adding payments is optional. You’ll still be able to continue through the binding process without adding payment information.

To change or cancel AutoPay, you will still need to contact SFM’s billing department, or have your policyholder create an account at sfmic.com/pay. We plan to add this ability to SAM in the future.

We’re adding this new feature in response to agent feedback. We hope it will streamline the process of setting up AutoPay for new customers for you and your agency.

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Since SFM was named a servicing carrier for the Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Insurance Pool in late 2021, new pool business has been coming in steadily and is currently ahead of plan.

SFM is one of five servicing carriers who are each handling 20% of the Wisconsin residual market as part of a five-year contract with the Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau (WCRB). SFM anticipates hitting the full 20% in Wisconsin assigned risk pool premium – approximately $12 million – by the end of the first quarter of 2023.

Staff expansion

To service this continued growth, SFM is expanding its Wisconsin-based assigned risk pool operations. As part of the WCRB contract, SFM initially only onboarded new business, and renewal business was kept with existing servicing carriers. As we get close to the one-year mark and in anticipation of the first round of renewals in January 2023, we added a premium auditor to our Wisconsin-based staff. We also recently hired a local claims representative. We plan to hire a second Wisconsin auditor who also has safety experience to provide both premium audit and loss prevention services to Badger State residual market employers.

Directing your clients

Agents and employers in the Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Insurance Pool can find resources and contact information in the “State programs” section of sfmic.com.

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