That is a total of $9,023,670 returned to the members over the last four years! If you were insured by a commercial workers' compensation carrier, this would have been their profit, and you would not have received any money back. Just another great benefit of belonging to a public entity risk pool!

The amount of each member's dividend is based on claims experience over five policy years (2010 - 2014). PComp's actuary calculated the dividend based on premiums paid, less incurred claims and administrative expenses. All 35 PComp county members received a dividend, and all but two of the 12 PComp county related entity members received a divided. Amounts ranged from $203 to $259,451. The average dividend was a little over $53,190.

The dividend was authorized by the PComp Board at their June 2016 meeting, based on the strong financial position of the pool. The dividend distribution was approved by Labor & Industry's Bureau of Workers' Compensation, Division of Self Insurance. L&I does not allow dividends to be distributed from the most recent completed policy year, which is why the calculation does not include results from 2015.

Safety Improvement Program (SIP) Grants
The PComp Board not only continued funding for the PComp SIP grant program, but increased it to $15,000 per member starting January 1, 2017! This is an increase from the $11,000 per member in 2016. Don't forget to use your $11,000 for 2016 (use it or lose it!) by the end of 2016.

If you have any questions about your dividend calculation, or anything about PComp, please contact John Sallade.

Register now for the PCoRP Membership Meeting, the Sunday night of the CCAP Fall Conference. The dinner begins at 6 p.m. in the Castilian Room of the Hotel Hershey, and after dinner a brief membership meeting will be held, including election of board members, a review of the audit and the annual awards presentations.

There may even be an announcement about dividends and grant funding....

Commissioners, Chief Clerks and Solicitors and their home rule county equivalents from PCoRP member counties are invited to attend, and bring a guest. Representatives of County Related Entities covered by PCoRP are also invited to attend, as are risk managers and other staff who work with PCoRP and PCoRP local insurance producers.

There is no charge to attend, but preregistration is required. Click here to send us an email, and let us know who is attending, and their titles. * Please RSVP by November 10, 2016.*

If you have any questions about the PCoRP Delegates Dinner Meeting, please contact John Sallade.

The PCoRP Board of Directors met September 9 at the Omni Bedford Springs Hotel. New board members Paul Conklin, Clinton County Commissioner, and Columbia County Chief Clerk David Witchey were welcomed to the board. Members of the County Reinsurance, Limited (CRL) staff also attended the meeting to provide an update on PCoRP's liability reinsurer.

The board reviewed a series of reports, and approved updates to the contract with CCAP. The board reviewed the annual PCoRP audit, and made decisions regarding a dividend and future Loss Prevention Grant funding. These decisions and copies of the audit will be presented to the PCoRP members at the November Delegates Dinner Meeting.

Questions about the board meeting can be directed to John Sallade.

John Sallade.

On August 22 and 23, the PELICAN Subscribers Advisory Committee (SAC) met in Burlington, Vermont for their annual meeting. As a captive domiciled in Vermont, the SAC is required by state law to have at least one meeting a year in Vermont. At this meeting the PELICAN SAC is provided with a review of the audit by the PELICAN auditors, reviews the status of the current financials of the program and begins discussion on any new initiatives they would like to see staff work on for the coming renewal.

One thing that was unique to this year's meeting was that the SAC elected to begin work with a new Vermont Management group, AIG. For the past three years, Strategic Risk Solutions (SRS) has handled PELICAN's day-to-day operations in Vermont. This includes handling all regulatory fillings in Vermont as well as Pennsylvania. The SAC made this decision based solely on the significant financial savings. There will be no changes in the services provided to PELICAN and its members with this change. The transition will begin sometime in November of this year with AIG taking over officially on January 1, 2017.

During the SAC meeting, the SAC was presented with a clean audit showing another year of strong financial position. The SAC also formally accepted the twenty new Oak Health facilities to the program along with the addition of Our Family Home. They also formally appointed Howard Jaffe to the SAC. Howard is the chairman of the board for Oak Health and was welcomed to the SAC.

Befitting this theme, the median projection from the FOMC members still shows one rate hike this year. Although Yellen suggested that the November FOMC could result in a policy change, we think that is unlikely. Our focus (as it is for market expectations) continues to be on the December FOMC meeting as the most likely time for the next Fed tightening move.

Looking forward, the Fed yet again lowered its projections for policy tightening in coming years, which is now much closer to market expectations.

The median of the projections sees a rise in the federal funds rate by 50 basis points in 2017, with a rise of another 75 basis points in 2018. This would place the federal funds rate just below 2.0 percent by the end of 2018 and would represent an unprecedentedly gradual tightening cycle by the Fed.

At this stage, the FOMC appears split on the appropriate use of monetary policy in the near term. Given the general improvement of the economy, it is getting harder to justify near-zero interest rates, a level associated with crisis conditions in economic and
financial markets.

On the economic data front, existing home sales dropped slightly in August to an annualized pace of 5.33 million units, although the trend remains positive. The lack of available homes on the market - at a mere 4.6 months' supply in August - is holding back some sales and could be a limiting factor on sales growth going
forward.

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index soared to 65 in August as homebuyer traffic was up and home
builders expect strong sales, helped by strong current demand. The index is now at its highest level since 2005 and suggests stronger new home sales and single-family housing starts in coming months.