Possible Layoff at Insurance Company Leaves Employees on Edge
By CRA News Service
Several employees for Lumbermen’s Underwriting Alliance, a member company of Lynn Insurance Group, were fired Thursday leaving the fate of both companies in limbo, the Boca Raton Tribune has learned.
“It came as a complete surprise,” one employee at Lynn Insurance Group, who did not want to be identified, said. “There was no warning.”
LUA employs 160 people across the country, including 88 in Boca Raton. It was not known how many at the Boca Raton-based Lynn Insurance Group would be affected.
The employee said the company had lost a major contract in February. However, there was no other advanced warning.
Employees were offered four months of severance, the employee said.
Gaye Torrance, a company spokeswoman, said Lumbermen’s Underwriting Alliance “entered into a voluntary period of order of administrative supervision with the Missouri Department of Insurance for 60-day period to develop a plan for the company going forward.”
“One of their clients filed Chapter 11, which forced them into this,” Torrance said. “They feel terrible about this. It’s been a difficult situation for them.”
LUA reported a $22.5 million deficit in its recently filed year-end 2014 statutory balance sheet. That was because LUA’s largest subscriber, TS Employment Services, Inc. – a Tri-State affiliated company – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Feb. 2, citing approximately $95 million of federal tax debt, according to the News Service.
During the 60-day period Lumbermen’s will be honoring all policy holder claims around the country, Torrance said.
Founded in 1905, Lumbermen’s Underwriting Alliance is a specialty commercial insurance company that provides property and casualty coverage to the forest products industry, food processing sector, assisted living facilities and the Professional Employer Organization market.
The company LUA provides workers compensation coverage for Tri-State, which offers payroll processing and revenue billing services as a PEO. T.S. Employment Services was forced into bankruptcy when it was unveiled that the company had “material, unpaid federal payroll tax liability.”
This is the second job loss scare that the city has experienced in as many months. Many of the roughly 2,000 people who work in the Office Depot headquarters on Military Trail are wondering if they’ll lose their jobs, or have to move to Framingham, Mass., after Staples announced it has a deal in place to buy Office Depot.
Mayor Susan Haynie could not be reached for comment on Friday.
