“One of the main benefits of being a member of CRL is that the profits are allocated back to the membership based upon their percentage of ownership in the corporation. They are not distributed to stockholders or determined by a corporate board as far as the dividend that will be paid. It’s allocated back to the membership.”

“We have a very interactive relationship with CRL. The staff in particular is very collaborative with us so that together we develop mutual strategies. We add value to CRL, and CRL adds value to us.”

“County Reinsurance, Limited is a captive insurance company. That means it only insures its own risks. So, hence the name, captive. We provide management services to lots of captive insurance companies, and County Reinsurance, Limited is one of the larger and long-standing captive companies that we’ve managed. I was involved in the pre-CRL days as part of the formation team. And, so, I was involved in CRL before they were CRL and got involved in the setup of the company 20 years ago in the state of Vermont.”

“At the heart of it, CRL is about controlling your own destiny. You can give money to a reinsurance company, and have them provide you with coverage when you have a catastrophic claim, but once you give them your money, your money is gone. You’re never going to get it back unless you get it back in a claim payment. And you don’t really own the company. You don’t have a lot of say in how the company is run. You can complain as a customer or suggest as a customer, but when you are part of your reinsurer, you have a lot more ability to really get the reinsurer to be what you want it to be, to price how you would like to see it priced and be competitive, and also to return some money on your investment.”

“CRL provides our pool the same advantages we provide our members – low and stable rates, the opportunity to build equity, the ability to participate in the direction of the organization, access to important risk management services,  and responsive and professional claims staff.  As strong proponents of the advantages of pooling, it only makes sense that we would choose to reinsure with an organization like CRL that shares our philosophy, values and approach.”

“The greatest benefit of working with CRL is that we can sleep at night. We never have to worry about a large disaster and our clients not being treated properly. They don’t have to negotiate from the smallest item to the largest most concerning item of cost. The people that work at CRL have our best interest in mind. We are CRL. It’s a member-owned captive, and that makes us very comfortable in the services we deliver to our customers”

“The staff at CRL are phenomenal, topnotch from top to bottom with Phil’s leadership, but in every position and with any question, any response, they are quick to respond.  They are a great resource. If they don’t have an immediate answer, they’re quick to find it and get back to you. I just cannot say enough about the staff at CRL.”

“I was of the opinion we needed to make a change, and I thought CRL was a good fit for our program. It’s basically a reinsurance pool for pools. They’re very, very good at providing reinsurance solutions to state associations. I gained some insight on what they were capable of doing through some of the members that I had crossed paths with and decided to pursue reinsurance with CRL through Phil Bell.”

“CORSA joined CRL for the significant cost savings for both the property and liability programs. I knew many of the directors that were involved in the program.  I knew I’d be working with the cream of the crop. We have now improved our property coverage significantly since joining the property program.”

“Our initial investment in the liability program was $289,000, and in 20 years, that’s grown to $4.4 million. CRL demonstrates consistency of service by the staff, a consistency in performance and leadership by the board, a consistency in peer-to-peer exchange with states that wouldn’t logically get together and interact with one another otherwise.  There’s just a tremendous compassion that we have in Georgia for this multi-state program, and we’re extremely proud of CRL and hail it as a 20-year corporation and look forward to great success in the future.”

“CRL is a pool for pools, and all of the things we tell our counties that are good about our pool, the reasons for pooling, the reasons that we give them for getting together to share their risks, all of those reasons are good reasons to belong to CRL, because it allows the state pools to come together and collaboratively share our risk. It saves us money. We don’t all have to go out into that international reinsurance market alone. We can go collectively. And by saving money for the pool, we, in turn, can pass those savings back along to our member counties. So, it’s a win-win deal for, I know for Texas. I won’t speak for anybody else, but, for us, it truly is.”

“Most reinsurers, if they are providing new products, it’s generally something that they’ve identified that they were giving away in the past, they exclude it from their coverages and then make you buy a new product. And CRL, I just don’t ever have to worry about that, that they’re trying to sell me something new. They’re always working in our best interest and always on that cutting edge adding new things that help us remain very competitive in our own state.”

“Twenty years ago, several state pool executive directors got together and decided to stop buying reinsurance in the open market. Together, we pooled our ideas, our expertise, and our money in order to take care of our own destiny; not be bound by the open market or be subjected to the volatile price swings. And it’s been great. It’s worked very well. That’s really how CRL got started and grown into the successful county reinsurer that it is today.”

“To be part of CRL means that we are part of an organization focused on counties. There’s a lot of similarity in our membership.  One of the biggest advantages is the transparency. We know exactly how our insurance is priced, how our coverage terms are determined, and we (or member pools) are at the table and part of that decision making process. There are no secrets. There’s no smoke and mirrors. This is a totally transparent organization.”

“The MAC Trust faced its greatest challenge since formation when the Missouri Division of Workers’ Compensation decided in 2013 to strictly interpret the self-insurance statutes and remove/retract our authority to offer, sell, and underwrite employers’ liability insurance.  The Division required that we cease representing the coverage to members, which could have caused the loss of the program.  CRL stepped up and fronted Employers’ Liability coverage for the self-insurance retention layer until legislation was passed correcting the issue.  Missouri will forever be grateful and remember that CRL came to our rescue.”

“I can’t imagine being a pool without CRL at this point. We are principally responsible for our own loss experience and ultimately our own costs. You just don’t have that kind of leverage in the private market. CRL went through a lot of trials and tribulations to get to where they are today. We are just really fortunate that CRL was formed and has been so successful.”

“CRL has been very adaptive noticing on the front end new exposure such as cyber liability. When this, all of this cyber hacking became very prominent in the public entity business, CRL responded to it very quickly. As they have most things, CRL staff understands the needs of county governments, and they respond accordingly. That’s one of the great benefits of CRL is the fact that they’re on the frontline constantly seeking new ways to improve coverages for our members.  CRL has added stability to our pool which has in turn enabled our pool to enhance what we are able to pass on to our members.”