STATE WORKMEN’S INSURANCE
FUND
The State Workmen’s Insurance Fund was created
by special Act of the General Assembly of the Com-
monwealth of Pennsylvania coincident with the en-
actment of the Workmen’s Compensation Law for
the purpose of providing employers of labor in Penn-
sylvania a means of obtaining protection under the
Workmen’s Compensation Act, at net cost. The
Fund is administered by the State Workmen’s In-
surance Board, which is an Administrative Board
in the Department of Labor and Industry. The Secretary of Labor and
Industry is designated as Chairman of the Board, while the other two
members comprising the Board are the State Treasurer and the Insur-
ance Commissioner. The present members of the Board are Peter
Glick, Chairman; Edward Martin, State Treasurer; and Matthew H.
Taggart, State Insurance Commissioner.
The State Workmen’s Insurance Fund received an appropriation
from the (teneral Assembly with which to start its
activities, and again two years after its inception, it
received an additional appropriation for the purpose
of firmly establishing the Fund. These two appro-
priations amounted to $500.000, which amount has
since been returned to the Commonwealth of Penn-
sylvania. Since 1917, the State Workmen’s Insur-
ance Fund has not received any State appropri-
ation and has been self-supporting. The expense of
conducting the work of the Fund is paid out of pre-
miums paid into the Fund by employers of labor
who insure their liability under the Workmen's J. G. Bingaman
Compensation Aet with the State Fund. Asisiant Mansgst
The State Fund has an accumulated surplus over and above all
liabilities of approximately $3,000,000; $2,000,000 of this amount has
been set aside as a general surplus, while $1,000,000 has been set aside
as a special eatastrophe reserve. This surplus and reserve is considered
by all authorities as ample to meet any contingency which may con-
front the Fund in the way of a catastrophe. In addition to the reserve
for catastrophe of $1,000,000, the Fund carries reinsurance to the
amount of $500,000 as a precautionary measure.
The State Fund, for the past few years, has operated on a net cost
basis. After all losses have been paid and proper reserves set aside to
take care of unpaid losses and the expense of the management of the
Fund has been ascertained for each year, the balance remaining from
premium income is distributed to policyholders of record during the
year, in the form of dividends, which, during the past few years, have
amounted to rather attractive figures.
The general operations of the State Fund are practically the same
as those of any other insurance carrier which issues policies in aceord-
ance with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department’s rules and regula-
Philip H. Dewey
Manager
