Retailers Fund pays dividends

Participants in Retailers Fund, MRA’s self-funded workers’ compensation insurance program, will receive another dividend check in early July, bringing the total dividends paid in 2005 to $835,010.

The total July dividend of $480,000 comes from the fund’s surplus reserves. Seventy percent of this dividend will be returned in dividend checks, to be mailed on July 1, and the balance will be applied to up-front premium discounts for 2006.

The dividend was authorized by the Board of Trustees and approved by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth.

This dividend comes in addition to April’s $355,010 interest-earnings dividend and the 8.75-percent up-front premium discount for 2005. Retailers Fund has returned dividends every year since 1982, paying out a total of more than $21.5 million over the lifetime of the fund.

“The good safety record of participants and active claims review by the Board of Trustees have helped keep expenses under control, allowing a significant portion of premiums to be returned to members as dividends,” said James P. Hallan, fund administrator and MRA president and chief operating officer.

For more information about how your retail business can save on work comp costs through Retailers Fund, contact Judy Schafer, manager of fund operations, at 800.366.3699 or jschafer@retailers.com.