At Pinnacol Assurance, we stick to what we know best — Colorado workers’ compensation and great customer service. Although Pinnacol today is a reliable, financially stable company, that wasn’t always the case.

Pinnacol dividend checks ready for distribution.

Originally a state agency, Pinnacol was losing millions of dollars by the mid-1980s and posed a serious liability to the state and taxpayers. 

Stand-Alone, Self-Funded Entity
After restructuring as a mutual insurance company, accountable to its policyholders, Pinnacol no longer received any state funding.  The company began to run its business more entrepreneurially, which helped stem the losses and meet the state’s basic reserve requirements — funds set aside to cover injured workers’ future medical expenses and lost income.

Surplus Creates True Stability
Yet reserves alone do not make an insurance company financially secure — they are only the first step.

Through years of continued hard work, we built our surplus to weather Pinnacol through unexpected emergencies or financial crises. Pinnacol is accountable to our policyholders for responsible use of our surplus.

Each year, Pinnacol can return unused surplus to policyholders in the form of a general dividend, provided we’ve met the state’s claim reserve requirements and set aside appropriate funds to cover unforeseen events, such as economic downturns, disasters, or medical inflation.

Financial Health Allows Us to Give Back
Pinnacol’s strength and stability in recent years has allowed us to deliver much more than workers’ compensation coverage to our customers and the community.

The highlights of our financial performance in 2008 include:

Premium earned: $521 million

Investment portfolio yield: 5.1 percent

General dividends: Approximately $55 million

Customer retention rate: 91 percent