What is the Minnesota Self-Insurers’ Security Fund?

The Minnesota Self-Insurers’ Security Fund (SISF) is a non-profit corporation. It is authorized and governed by Minnesota Statutes Chapter 79A. All individual private employers (excluding the State or its political subdivisions) who wish to be self-insured for their Minnesota workers’ compensation liability must first obtain a Certificate of Authority to do so from the Minnesota Department of Commerce. There is also a provision for groups to become members if they meet certain standards set forth in Minnesota Statutes Chapter 79A. These self-insurers automatically become members to the Minnesota Self-Insurers’ Security Fund.

The purpose of the Minnesota Self-Insurers’ Security Fund is to guarantee that, if a member becomes bankrupt or is insolvent, that member’s injured workers will continue to have their workers’ compensation benefits paid.

Each SISF member must post security in the form of a surety bond, letter of credit, or cash or cash equivalent with the Minnesota Department of Commerce in an amount determined by an actuary to be sufficient to pay all its workers’ compensation claims. If that member becomes bankrupt, the Department of Commerce liquidates the posted security and turns the proceeds over to SISF. SISF retains a third-party administrator to pay the workers’ compensation claims of that bankrupt member. If the posted security is inadequate to pay all of the formers member’s workers’ compensation claims, SISF has the authority to assess its members for the shortfall.

SISF is governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of nine voting members and the Commissioner of Labor and Industry or his/her designee, who is a non-voting member. Five of the Board of Trustee members are elected by individual self-insurers, one is elected by the group self-insurers, and three are appointed by the Commissioner of Commerce. The Board members serve four year terms.

The Executive Director of SISF is Carl W. Cummins, III. Kim Drevnick-Voller is the SISF Administrator. Andrew Morrison is the General Counsel. The SISF office is located at Capitol Ridge Building, 161 Saint Anthony Avenue, Suite 818, St. Paul, MN 55103. The SISF telephone number is (651) 291-9155. The email address for the Executive Director is cwcummins@mnsisf.org. The email address for the Administrator is drevnick@mnsisf.org. The email address for the General Counsel is morrison@kmchlaw.com.