Many churches choose their own insurance coverage for their property and liability and find that premiums are expensive for the first year and annual increases are astronomical.  

To help churches obtain reliable and more economical insurance, Northern Illinois Conference offers NICUM property insurance. Its mission is to provide a long-term, sustainable insurance program for all participating churches in the conference.  

NICUM is much more affordable than most policies offered by other carriers. Church leaders may have even heard that many religious organizations, even those with favorable claims experience, are being dropped by their insurance carriers and cannot find alternatives. NICUM will not drop member churches.

Others have experienced excessive premium increases (some at 25, 50 or 100 percent or more, year after year). Many churches are unable to buy critical coverage (sexual misconduct and molestation liability) or adequate limits at any cost.  

The chart below demonstrates how over the past four years, NICUM has outperformed the insurance marketplace for religious organizations. It has saved costs to member churches in every area by over 50 percent. The data below represents 2020-2024 rates.     

Line of Coverage	Cumulative Rate Increase for Religious Institutions	Cumulative Rate Increase for NICUM Member Churches
Property	71%	32%
Liability	50%	19%
Workers' Compensation	55%	12%
Auto	66%	25%

   

Because NICUM covers a group of churches, it spreads the cost and risk across a group. This enables NICUM to negotiate better rates than can an individual church. It obtains a strong renewal because of favorable loss experience and its commitment to risk-management practices such as Safe Sanctuaries training and ongoing property appraisals.  
NICUM’s board works to keep costs as low as possible while maintaining current coverage and keeping limits the same. Considering today’s extremely limited insurance market and challenging rate environment, NICUM provides churches reliable insurance at very competitive rates.

Please direct questions to Elaine Moy, NIC treasurer and director of administrative services.

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Following are some questions and answers about the Northern Illinois Conference’s property insurance program. They explain how this program is able to negotiate better rates than a church would be able to obtain on its own. 

What is the NICUM Property Insurance Program?  

The Northern Illinois Conference established the NICUM Insurance Program for all member churches. In 2016, annual conference session members passed the requirement that NIC churches join the Northern Illinois Conference-wide property and liability by July 1, 2017. A seven-member NICUM Insurance and Risk Management Board, comprising three NICUM trustees and four laypeople, oversees the program. They represent diverse experience in ministry, insurance, and finance. The board designs and administers insurance and risk management programs for the protection of all member churches. This includes purchasing the right insurance coverage at the most cost-efficient rates: it must have affordable coverage limits, be available in the market, and reflect the unique exposures and financial risk we face as a religious and ministry-based organization.

How is the NICUM program different from a church’s buying their own policy directly from an insurance company? 

The NICUM Insurance Program is a shared-risk program. Each member church shares in both the collective risk of all participating churches and the net premium advantages that generally come with a large, dispersed risk. At its core, it reflects our fundamental belief and commitment to communal responsibility. We know we are stronger and more effective in carrying our shared mission when we work together and support each other. Shared risk allows NICUM to optimize the breadth of insurance coverage for all participating churches at the best price.

Can churches find policies with lower premiums than NICUM’s? 

Premiums for a church that obtains insurance independently are not sufficient to cover the long-term risk of the enterprise. This is why so many churches of all denominations find that their insurer won’t renew their policy or cannot find insurance at another company at any cost. An individual church acting alone represents a greater level of risk to an insurance company than a group of churches that consolidate their risk. The rates an individual church pays for independent coverage will almost always be higher than the rates charged to the collection of churches (assuming the same exposures, insurance coverages, and limits).  

NICUM enjoys buying power that an individual church does not possess. Insurance companies favor entities that possess a “spread of risk,” which the NICUM group has because of the large number and geographic spread of our churches.

Why have church insurance premiums increased over the last several years to levels higher than expected?  

Several market factors have caused that. First, the insurance market for religious institutions has reduced its capacity. Increasingly fewer insurance companies are willing to provide insurance to religious entities due to underwriting losses. As the availability of insurance declines, prices rise. Other factors include the trend of higher settlements on litigation, social inflation, political unrest both domestically and internationally, and an increase in the frequency and severity of weather-related events.  

Many insurance companies are losing money on their religious clients. Predictably, they have elected to stop providing coverage, reduce their exposure by becoming more selective in who they insure, and charge more to those clients they choose to keep.  

Take comfort in these two facts. The NICUM Insurance Program, because of its effective design and favorable loss history, has been able to deliver better renewal results than the market in general over the last several years. And our program is designed to provide a sustainable and reliable solution for the long term for ALL our churches, not just those that are considered favorable risks. As a unified conference, we are less subject to the volatile ups and downs of the insurance market and less likely to be denied insurance when we have claims. 

Have more questions? Contact Dwayne Jackson, director of risk management and ministry protection.