Wisconsin Marketplace

Municipal insurance in Wisconsin is a bit different than it is in other places. In 1977, a law (SB 477) was passed that prohibits municipalities from joining risk pools. Instead, they are allowed to form mutual insurance corporations. Today, there are five major municipal mutual insurance groups owned by municipalities, one state government run municipal insurance fund, and a more conventional mutual company that offers insurance to individuals and companies along with municipalities.

Coverages Offered

Each company offers a variety of different coverages, some of which are unique to municipalities. These lists were drawn from reports from the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and company web sites.

Market Composition

It can be difficult to figure out how to compare the insurance companies in a marketplace due to the broad range of differing policies that each one sells. Here, we have 3 demarcations between the companies. The first 5 in the table all primarily write liability insurance. The LGPIF is by itself because it focuses entirely on property insurance. Finally, Rural Mutual is by itself for two reasons. The first is that it sells insurance to individuals, businesses, and municipalities and there is no way for us to look at financials for the municipality lines by themselves. Second, it deals in both property and liability insurance, so there's similar company for a good comparison.

All of these figures came from reports written by the OCI from 2009 to 2013. As a result, while the chart is good for a general comparison, it is inexact. Links to the reports are at the bottom of this page.

Capital Structure

Another interesting way to compare the various insurance providers is by looking at their capital structures. The LGPIF is certainly the most unique provider with all of it's capital being cash, but looking at the others, it's clear that there is no single capital structure that is ideal.

OCI Reports

Links to the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance's reports in pdf format are listed below. For the Local Government Property Insurance Fund, the link goes to their financials as of June 30, 2014.

Cities & Villages Mutual Insurance (CVMIC)

Wisconsin Municipal Mutual Insurance Company (WMMIC)

League of Wisconsin Municipalities Mutual Insurance (LWMMI)

Transit Mutual Insurance (TMI)

Wisconsin County Mutual Insurance Corporation (WCMIC)

Local Government Property Insurance Fund (LGPIF)

Rural Mutual Insurance (RMI)