Cumberland County Schools Property Insurance Request for Proposal (RFP)

Transcription

1 Cumberland County Schools Property Insurance Request for Proposal (RFP) Process Overview Cumberland County Schools (Cumberland) provides this notice to announce that it is conducting a competitive process for its July 1, 2014 property insurance program renewal. Cumberland contemplates awarding a three year agent/broker (participants) assignment with two one year options. The process includes an open invitation to participants to submit qualifications to enter the competition. The best qualified participants based upon the Phase 1 qualification assessment will be short listed for the Phase 2 interviews at the Cumberland offices in Fayetteville. One or more participants from Phase 2 will be authorized for Phase 3 to represent Cumberland in the insurance underwriting and services market place. The outcome of Phase 3 will be the development of coverage, service and cost alternatives for Cumberland s renewal. Each participant will be informed of its status at the conclusion of each phase in which it competed. Cumberland has retained the services of Scarborough & Britt, LLC, an independent consulting firm, to facilitate the RFP process. Jim Britt, CPCU is the lead consultant working at the direction of Henry Smith, Risk Manager for Cumberland. In addition to Smith and Britt, Cumberland staff will participate in conducting evaluations and preparing recommendations during the process. The final decision for the insurance program renewal rests with the Cumberland Board of Education. Cumberland intends to have a thorough evaluation of its options in all phases of the process as it seeks to achieve the best value in its property insurance program. Therefore, it retains its option to confer and negotiate with participants. This option will assure that there is mutual understanding by Cumberland and participants regarding the qualifications presented in Phase 1; risk management, insurance and service concepts discussed in Phase 2; and market proposals presented in Phase 3. The best combination of coverage, services and cost will deliver the best value for Cumberland. 1 P age

2 Cumberland has the prerogative to amend, suspend or terminate the RFP at any point in the process. Cumberland also retains the authority to negotiate regarding finalist proposal alternatives in Phase 3. Current Situation Cumberland faced an enormous premium increase with the incumbent carrier as the 2012 renewal approached. This was driven by two large losses during the 12 fiscal year: A summer 09 unintended fire caused by pranksters dropping small firecrackers from a school roof top into a large space filled with combustibles due to seasonal storage renovations in school. A spring 11 tornado The onset of RMS 11 also impacted the premium since Cumberland straddles coastal and interior rating geographies. Ten of 85 schools are east of the I-95 corridor. The current program has its primary layer with a specialty public schools pool and two excess layers with surplus lines insurers. Cumberland absorbs a large deductible but has had no losses since the insurers and broker changes 7/1/12. Since these changes were made late in the renewal countdown and a further excess carrier change was made 7/1/13, Cumberland believes it is advisable to revisit the program strategies for the 2014 renewal. Cumberland operates 86 school locations. TIV approximates $1.3 B for schools and support facilities. This includes operation of 78 schools in buildings owned by Cumberland. The other eight schools are located in affiliated organizations such as Fayetteville State University. Other owned facilities are: Operations Center Educational Resource Center School Board location including offices for: Finance HR Central Services Drivers Education Competition Phases Phase 1- Participant Qualifications 2 P age

3 Each interested participant is required to submit a response to a short, five page commentary of qualifications. The participants will be evaluated on each of the five parts with 20 point weight for each. The possible point total for this phase is 100. Pay attention to the details requested. These include identification of the participant lead representative, contact details for references, brief descriptions of insurance and services provided to those references and familiarity with public entity oriented property insurance underwriting market resources. Please Note: Font size 12 will be the minimum for the survey reply Include participant name on each page of the response Title and number each page Participant lead sign and date the survey response at the bottom of page 1 Qualification response must be received by noon, Friday, February 21, 2014 Send via to: Henry Smith See address below Jim Britt See address below Page 1 Participant and Leader Capsules Brief history of participant organization Overview of participant public entity practice Short bio for proposed relationship leader Office address and contact points for this leader Page 2 Team Members and References List of supporting team members with: Background Credentials Experience with public entities Proposed role for Cumberland program Three public entity client references Entity name Primary contact, position, phone and Description of property insurance and services provided 3 P age

4 Page 3 Similar Program Experience Experience with programs similar to the current Cumberland property situation Experience with: General Adjuster services Loss control TPA services Property replacement cost appraisals Page 4 Additional Services Breadth and depth of participant s in-house supplemental services including: Claim advisory Loss control advisory Property PML projections Page 5 Open Commentary This is a participant platform to share information which is not requested in the categories above and which will be of interest to Cumberland. Sharing additional information, unique to the participant, will assist Cumberland with its objective of being diligent in its decisions. Phase 2 Qualifiers Interviews The best qualified participants in phase one, as supported by the evaluation rankings, will be invited to interview with an evaluation team at Cumberland. The invitation will include supplemental data on claim history, exposures and other information pertinent to the participants formation of conceptual program designs. Participants will be apprised of date/time slots, categories for evaluation, point scoring, team member participation, content expectations and dialogue/presentation mix. The target date for interviews is Wednesday, March 5. Phase 3 Renewal Alternatives Following the interviews, one or more participants presenting the most attractive concepts will be authorized to negotiate with property underwriting and service markets. As in Phase 1, the participants emerging from Phase 2 will be selected based upon evaluation scores. 4 P age

5 Market resource authorizations will be specifically aligned with concepts from Phase 2 which Cumberland wishes to explore. The participants will have the opportunity to request supplemental data from Cumberland to facilitate negotiation of alternatives. Protocols Participant Authority Participants in Phases 1 and 2 of the RFP process accept the boundary that only incumbent participants serving Cumberland may have dialogue with their incumbent insurance carriers and service organizations. This dialogue is limited to current service issues unless, and until, the participants are assigned one or more of these resources for Phase 3. The participants selected for Phase 3 will be authorized to approach specific market resources aligned with their Phase 2 conceptual program designs. Each participant will identify their contemplated market resources during the interview in Phase 2. Any overlap in requests will be noted by the Cumberland evaluation team and discussed with involved participants before eliminating the redundancy. Participants in Phase 3 will be provided with a letter of authority, as needed, to negotiate with assigned resources for a renewal proposal. After the decision by the Cumberland Board Education, the letters of authority for resources not embraced in the renewal will expire. The participant presenting the chosen renewal program will have access to all market resources for the duration of their assignment. However, any submission to a resource not currently serving Cumberland must first be approved by Cumberland for the duration of the service relationship. Professional Conduct Participants are expected to present their capabilities and credentials in a direct and candid fashion. It is expected that both organizational and individual team member performance examples will be shared in each phase of the RFP process. Petitioning Cumberland officials, staff or contractors is inappropriate and is cause for immediate disqualification. The same guidelines apply for market resources behavior. Participant Remuneration Disclosure of participant remuneration, projected or earned, on the Cumberland program is expected. This includes commission for intermediary wholesale brokers which provide market access. Each participant should also be prepared to share how and in what amount any 5 P age

6 incentive compensation flows to the organization from resources contemplated for or embraced by the Cumberland. If a participant deems a remuneration mode other than pure commission is advisable, this should be addressed in Phase 2 and detailed in Phase 3. Alternate modes might include: Fee for service Mix of commission and fee, varying by insurance or service contract Special project fees for enhanced program elements Fees imbedded in special facility arrangements Shared Risk Programs If a program option involves a shared risk with one or more entities, in either a conceptual or proposed status, the participant must present the pros and cons of the option including: Capital requirements to join the facility Prorated loss adjustments large losses above occurrence limits Reinsurance arrangements Internal and outsourced services distinctions Other unique factors The participant should also be prepared to discuss entities of similar size and risk profile which: Are members of the facility and for what duration Have left the facility the past five years and rationale for departure Process Information Participant candidates with questions should these to Jim Britt, with a copy to Henry Smith, by noon on February 10. Responses to these will be sent on February 12 to all participant candidates which have registered their interest by with Jim by noon on February 10. Participants involved in Phases 2 and 3 may need clarity on their instructions. The team lead for the participant should contact: 6 P age

7 Jim Britt Office Cell Scarborough & Britt, LLC 5970 Fairview Road Suite 420 Charlotte, NC In the event of an emergency and the inability to connect with Jim Britt on a timely basis, please contact: Henry Smith Office Cell henrysmith@ccs.k12.nc.us Cumberland County Schools 2465 Gillespie Street Fayetteville, NC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 7 P age

8 RFP Process Timeline Activities Target Dates RFP published January 30 RFP questions deadline February 10 RFP questions response February 12 Phase 1 responses due February 21 Participant status for Phase 2 Week of February 24 Phase 2 interviews March 5 Participants status for Phase 3 Week of March 10 Proposals due for renewal options May 7 Phase 3 proposals review conference calls May 14 Renewal recommendation to Board May 20 Board decision on renewal program June 10 8 P age