Changing Assumptions Put Employers' Reinsurance Fund in Deficit Position

Utah hasn’t accepted new claims to its second injury fund since 1994, but the fund still owes at least $166 million, according to the latest annual report, released Sept. 26. Deloitte Consulting said that the financial condition of the Employers' Reinsurance Fund was set back in the past year by investment losses and newly adopted mortality tables that assume claimants will live longer and collect more benefit checks. Those changes pulled the ERF’s fund balance down to a deficit position of $6.8 million as of June 30, but that wasn’t enough to impact the assessment rate...