The WCIRB has released the Workers’ Compensation California Terrorism Risk Assessment study that was developed in partnership with Risk Management Solutions, Inc. (RMS), a leading provider of catastrophe modeling analytics.

The study is intended to estimate potential California workers’ compensation losses arising from certified terrorist acts that would be retained by insurers under the U.S. Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (TRIPRA) for calendar year 2019. RMS quantified total workers’ compensation losses using an analysis of exposure data from member insurers of the WCIRB. The study is based on data provided by the WCIRB and compiled using RMS terrorism exposure assessment models. The WCIRB portfolio contains the policy and exposure data for $544 billion of business payroll insured by members of the WCIRB.

Highlights of the analysis include:

• Based on the RMS attack catalog drawing from approximately 60,000 potential terrorism events, the study suggests a 9.5 percent probability of triggering TRIPRA given that a terrorism event occurs.
• Without TRIPRA, the estimated average annual loss is $27.9 million. With TRIPRA, the estimated average annual loss retained by WCIRB member insurers is $21 million, which corresponds to an average loss rate per full time equivalent employee of $1.85 and an average loss rate per $100 of payroll of $0.0039.
• Due to the high density of exposure and potential terrorist targets in the city, San Francisco generates the highest estimated average annual losses in California with an excess of $12 million in estimated average annual losses retained by insurers under the 2019 TRIPRA.

The study is available in the Research section of wcirb.com and at the link below:

Workers' Compensation California Terrorism Risk Assessment