Pinnacol Assurance to Refund $120 Million

Pinnacol Assurance who is the largest workers comp insurer in the state has determined to provide a sizable refund to its business policyholders. A while ago the state legislators were seeking to use some of the excess funds that Pinnacol had for the state budget. Pinnacol opposed that and now plans to provide refunds of some of that to its policyholders. If you read the article linked here you'll see the story and Pinnacol denies it is doing this to further deter the state from seeking its funds. As I have said before Pinnacol is a hybrid of public-private interests so I would expect the state to stay interested in it. Needless to say the primary reason for this refund is really that Pinnacol is paying out less to claimants in benefits. In effect it is doing quite well which cannot be said for many claimants.