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By M. PAUL JACKSON mjackson@leader.net
Sunday, February 06, 2000 Page: 1D
WILKES-BARRE – Who knew the field of workers’ compensation insurance could
be so profitable?
For the answer, ask Judd and Susan Shoval.
When the Shovals began GUARD Insurance Group 17 years ago, the business
consisted of one client and seven employees.
Now, things are different.
The company, which began with an investment of $1 million, has grown to a
business with a $54 million surplus. Armed with about 250 employees, it has
succeeded by creating a niche for itself in a growing, competitive insurance
field.
And GUARD is looking to grow, Judd Shoval said.
“We’re very ready today to become known not just as an insurance
operation, but as a financial group,” said Shoval, a native of Austria.
The expansion of GUARD is just one example of the blurring of the lines
between the banking and insurance industries. As more and more banks offer
insurance products to customers, insurance companies are responding by
offering banking services to policy holders.
“It’s a multitude of factors that make a difference,” Shoval said.
But, the Wilkes-Barre-based company differs from many of its competitors.
Typically, insurance agencies sell insurance directly to employers and large
businesses. Those other companies then make those insurance products available
to their workers.
With other companies, “there’s more of a contractual relationship,”
between the insurance company and the employer, GUARD spokesman Bob Thomas
said.
GUARD, however, primarily deals with agents to sell its insurance, Thomas
said. The company underwrites the workers’ compensation insurance, and the
agents sell the policies.
About 700 agents – working as independent contractors – sell insurance to
20,000 policy holders, including many small- to medium-sized businesses.
It’s a customer base that seems to have paid off. GUARD’s premium sales
have grown by about 40 percent within the past two years, Shoval said.
The organization founded by the Shovals began in 1983. The couple had been
selling workers’ compensation in the city since 1976 but decided to expand.
Originally operating from one building at 16 S. River St., GUARD now
encompasses four buildings in the downtown area, including two purchased from
M&T Bank in the fall of 1998.
Some of the GUARD properties are designated Keystone Opportunity Zone
sites, which might make them eligible for property tax breaks. The KOZ program
is designed to spur economic development.
By catering to smaller businesses, GUARD is able to strengthen and build on
personal relationships with its customers, Shoval said. Typically, smaller
companies are unwilling to buy insurance from larger organizations, and GUARD
provides a much-needed service, he said.
“This is a nickel-and-dime business,” Shoval said. “You have to do lots
of things the right way.”
One of those ways includes expansion. Because more banks are entering the
insurance market, GUARD has had to develop more services, Shoval said.
On Oct. 4, 1999, for example, the business established a $7 million
“virtual bank” system that issues direct loans and leases to customers.
The system is run electronically, allowing customers to do their banking
over the Internet or by fax or phone.
Richard Mebane, president of the thrift bank, would not say how many
customers it has generated, but said the system has granted “several hundred
loans” since 1999.
Operating a financial institution entirely electronically allows GUARD to
avoid the hefty expenses of branch offices, including bank tellers, heating
bills and costly computer systems, Mebane said.
“There’s an enormous cost to having a banking system,” Mebane said. “If
we can find a way to (reduce costs), then we can theoretically lower the cost
structure.”
The financial additions are just one way GUARD hopes to stay ahead in the
insurance market, Shoval said.
As an increasing number of financial institutions begin to offer more
services – including mutual funds, annuities and insurance coverages – smaller
businesses such as GUARD have been pressured to grow, he said.
GUARD already sells insurance in New Hampshire and Connecticut. It recently
received state permission to sell insurance in Michigan, Kentucky and North
Carolina.
But much of their growth might not have been possible without changes to
Pennsylvania workers’ compensation law, Shoval said.
Workers’ compensation law changes adopted by the legislature in 1996 made
it easier for the organization to grow, he said. Prior to Act 57, the rising
cost of the insurance made it difficult to expand.
“The cost of workers’ compensation was just getting higher and higher,”
Shoval said. “It was getting to the point where it was becoming a major issue
with employers.
“The system was antiquated,” he said. “There were not many incentives
for (injured) workers to go back to work.”
With the changes – which include offsetting compensation benefits by the
amount the injured worker receives from Social Security disability – more
employees are being persuaded to return to work, Shoval said.
And, the new laws have helped make the company more profitable.
“Before the reforms, you couldn’t compete with price, you couldn’t manage
– to the same degree – the health system to return someone to work,” he said.
“Generally, getting people back to work has become a bigger selling
tool.”
GUARD still faces challenges. In the new computer-oriented workplace,
finding skilled, trained workers has become difficult.
But GUARD has met those challenges. Employees can receive computer
training, and even enroll in college-level computer courses.
“There are real extensive programs in place” to train employees, Thomas
said. “It’s a multi-faceted education program.”
In the future, GUARD hopes to expand its insurance and banking service, and
will try to reach a penetration as great as 4 percent in its existing markets.
“If we’re able to overcome the obstacles and be a catalyst for change that
… creates opportunities,” Mebane said.
Call Jackson at 829-7134.