A complete professional risk management service provided to denominational administrators by the General Conference. This includes risk identification and analysis, risk control and loss prevention strategies, risk financing alternatives such as insurance and self-insurance programs, employee benefit program development and administration, coordination of denominational risk and insurance management programs, design and presentation of risk and insurance management education programs pertinent to denominational entities, and consultation with denominational administrators relative to specifications and parameters of individual risk and insurance management programs. These programs address the full range of potential loss exposures, including property loss exposures, net income loss exposures, liability loss exposures, and personnel loss exposures.
This service is provided by the General Conference Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists, doing business as General Conference Risk Management Services. The organization is commonly known as Risk Management Services, or its abbreviation, RMS. Risk Management Services is directed by a board of management comprised of Seventh-day Adventist professionals working in the insurance industry, and a representative group of denominational administrators. The board chairperson is the General Conference treasurer. Execution of the denominational risk management services is assigned to the executive director of Risk Management Services and appointed staff.
Risk Management Services directs the global risk management program from its home office at the General Conference world headquarters building in Silver Spring, Maryland. Risk management, by its nature, requires close contact with the source of exposure to risks. Therefore, Risk Management Services has established offices in various geographic locations in the North American Division, as well as an office in England. From these offices and the home office, traveling professionals are able to effectively serve the entire world field.
In order to facilitate the retention of income opportunities created by denominational risk financing programs, several business organizations have been established through which risk financing activities are conducted. These organizations are sometimes referred to as “captive” organizations. They exist solely to meet the denominational risk financing objectives.
Gencon Insurance Company of Vermont was incorporated on Feb. 2, 1987. It is a captive insurance company that provides the corporate vehicle for providing denominational self-insurance coverage for various lines of coverage, as well as access to catastrophic insurance coverage from reinsurers. Its predecessor was the International Insurance Company, Takoma Park, Maryland, which was incorporated on Apr. 23, 1936. The original incorporators and board of directors were: W. A. Benjamin, W. H. Branson, H. H. Cobban, W. P. Elliott, I. H. Evans, F. Green, M. E. Kern, C. C. Pulver, J. L. Shaw, C. H. Watson, and W. H. Williams. This was the result of an action at the Annual Council of November 1935, where a committee was chosen to draft a working policy for denominational property insurance. W. A. Benjamin, a Seventh-day Adventist insurance professional, was called to assist in this work. Benjamin later joined the General Conference staff as manager of the General Conference Insurance Service, now known as General Conference Risk Management Services. The International Insurance Company, Takoma Park, Maryland, was sold on Dec. 4, 1992. Gencon Insurance Company of Vermont is periodically inspected and audited by the Insurance Department of the state of Vermont regarding its operations. This is the same rigid inspection given to all insurance companies chartered under the laws of the state of Vermont.
Two captive agencies are also used in the risk financing program of the denomination. Gencon Agency, Inc., was incorporated in 1969. It is a taxable corporation used to facilitate the placement of insurance programs that have a third party as ultimate beneficiary with insurance companies. An example of this type of program would be an employee benefit group coverage. Gencon Insurance Service, Inc., was incorporated in 1958. It is used to facilitate the placement of insurance programs that have the denominational entity itself as the beneficiary with insurance companies. An example of this type of program would be a denominational boiler insurance coverage.
Gencon Self-Insurance Services was organized in 1985 to separate the funds that are administered by Risk Management Services on behalf of other denominational entities from regular operations.
Gencon Financial Services, Inc., was incorporated in 1991. It is a taxable corporation operated as a securities broker-dealership. It is used to facilitate the denominational employee retirement planning alternatives, including tax-sheltered annuity programs. It is subject to the rigorous compliance requirements of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers.
All the business organizations used in the risk financing function of Risk Management Services are staffed exclusively by professionals who are employees of the General Conference Risk Management Services. They represent part of the team of risk management staff who provide the complete and professional risk management service to their partners in service, the denominational administrators.
Executive Directors of General Conference Risk Management Services (and affiliated organizations): William A. Benjamin, 1935–1955; Virgil L. Sanders, 1955–1957; Jewell W. Peeke, 1957–1978; Charles O. Frederick, 1978–1983; Stanton H. Parker, 1983–1992; Robert L. Sweezey, 1992– .