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Through 160 Years, Gilbert’s Insures Its Customers
SHARON, Pa. -- A company that started in business insuring horses and buggies the same year that Charles Dickens published Hard Times is today navigating issues that back then were unfathomable.
Gilbert’s Risk Solutions Inc.’s roots run deep in the Shenango Valley, say its executives. But the gas-lit world of 1854 is far removed from the lightning-paced business environment of 2014 as the insurance company tackles the concerns and complexities of the modern age such as the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, safety in the workplace and risks related to cyber theft.
“The ACA is a big concern,” says Brad Mantzell, vice president of the insurance firm in Sharon, Pa. “It’s probably the top concern for most business owners since the parameters have changed and continue to change.”
The Affordable Care Act requires companies that employ more than 50 to provide health insurance to their full-time employees. However, the law continues to evolve and change, and those companies that have between 50 and 99 employees must provide health benefits by 2016. Those with 100 or more must provide benefits to at least 70% of full-time workers by 2015, and 95% by 2016.
“We’re doing a lot of hand-holding,” says Connie Gerba, benefits-department manager. “It’s not just the Affordable Care Act, but other regulations that come into play. There’s some confusion as to what impact it will have on their business.”
Increased administrative overhead expenses required by the law, plus the unknown impact of taxes, haven’t reduced costs for many companies that provide benefits, Gerba says. And, the volatility of the law – several provisions have changed since Congress passed the legislation in 2010 – has kept insurance companies busy tracking and staying abreast of these changes.
“It’s a moving target – they can come out with something that changes it all the time,” she says. “Now we see businesses evaluating whether they want to be fully insured or look at self-insured opportunities,” she says, which might lower the cost, but place the employer at greater risk. “I don’t know what other changes are likely to come down the road,” she says.
Aside from the ACA, the president of Gilbert’s Risk Solutions, Lew Kachulis, says one of the fastest-growing segments of the business is insuring the safety of the workers of client companies in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and five other states.
“One of our core competencies is creating a safer work environment for employees,” Kachulis reports. Gilbert’s has developed a division composed of safety professionals who can help assess companies’ safety plans with an eye toward driving down the number and severity of injuries in the workplace.
“We have contracts with 60 or more companies that range in size from 100 employees to 2,000 employees,” Kachulis says. “We track and monitor the number and severity of workplace accidents.”
Studies show that it costs the average manufacturer $8 in indirect costs for each dollar it spends as a result of a workplace accident, Kachulis says.
Roughly 60% of these clients in this business segment are manufacturers, another 30% are in the health-care field, and 10% represent miscellaneous industries, he reports. “We’ve got contracts in eight states with different employers.”
The company takes the same approach to personal insurance, says Tiffany Boyle, personal risk adviser.
“We meet with our clients to do a personal risk assessment on all of their personal items: home, auto, umbrella, any recreational vehicles. We go over all their coverage to make sure they have the right coverage.”
As for homeowners insurance, minimum deductibles today are higher than before, Boyle says. “There are some [insurance carriers] that will still do $500, but most are $1,000 now,” she reports.
“Companies are getting strict on the age of the roof,” she elaborates, noting that some carriers will insure a house with an aging roof only for cash value instead of replacement costs until that roof is updated.
More recently, at least one insurance carrier has opted not to insure properties that contain well pads because of potential contamination issues and the additional traffic that the well would attract.
“I see that becoming an issue,” Boyle says.
Gilbert’s traces its roots to the W.L. Murdoch Agency, formed in 1854 when the population of Sharon stood at 700.
During the early 1920s, John Gilbert entered the business and eventually became a partner along with Edward Bucholtz. They renamed it Bucholtz and Gilbert’s.
In 1934, Glibert’s brother, Samuel, joined the business after Bucholtz died and the name of the firm was changed to Gilbert’s.
Today, Gilbert’s has 30 employees.
Kachulis says that one key to the longevity of the insurance firm is that it works closely with companies, getting to know them and they way they conduct business.
“The way we like to engage a business is do a review of what we consider their top-10 risks,” he says.
Once specialists review the client’s business plans, employees, and sometimes the customer base, Gilbert’s meets with its management team to outline the 10 most important risks in terms of severity and frequency.
“We work throughout the year to mitigate two or three of those risks that their management team decides is most critical to their business,” Kachulis says.
Today, the No. 1 risk often circles back to the Affordable Care Act, Kachulis says. However, advances in computer technology have left many clients exposed to cyber theft and fraud in the region, and the insurance business has developed protections to insure data stored on laptops, smart- phones, or company networks.
Gilbert’s Mantzell says normally a company with 100 or fewer employees lacks the technology or firewalls to prevent hackers from breaking into its system. Thus, that company’s data are at risk.
Moreover, Gilbert’s is gaining more business through companies affiliated with the oil and gas industry exploring in the Utica and Marcellus shale plays, Mantzell relates.
“There’s a lot of new businesses and new growth in the area in both Ohio and Pennsylvania,” he reports. “It’s a regional play. We have clients in Morgantown, W.Va., that are heavily into the play, and those all the way into eastern Ohio and central Pennsylvania.
“The opportunities lie in the midstream business,” Mantzell says.
Pictured: Key people at Gilbert’s Risk Solutions include Tiffany Boyle, a personal risk adviser, and Connie Gerba, benefits-department manager. Standing behind them are Lew Kachulis, president of the company, and Brad Mantzell, vice president.
Copyright 2014 by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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