BATON ROUGE, La. (December 16, 2009)—The Board of Directors of Louisiana Workers' Compensation Corporation (LWCC) has declared a 2009 dividend of $15 million, to be paid to qualifying policyholders in early 2010 upon authorization by the Louisiana Department of Insurance. Once distributed, this will bring LWCC's cumulative total dividend paid to policyholders over the past seven years to $136,796,519.

More than 18,000 policyholders will receive a portion of the dividend. Individual dividend awards are based on a calculation that takes into account policyholders' premium payments and longevity with LWCC over the last five years.

"LWCC is committed to providing policyholder value, and our financial strength and stability have allowed the company to return a dividend for seven consecutive years," said LWCC President and CEO Kristin W. Wall.

"In addition to declaring a dividend, LWCC reduced overall rates in 2009 by 12.9 percent, achieving an overall rate reduction of 53 percent since the company began operations in 1992," said LWCC Chairman Aubrey T. Temple, Jr. "We are grateful to our agent partners, who have contributed to our financial success, and to our policyholders, who have joined us in helping to make Louisiana workplaces safer."

LWCC (www.lwcc.com) is a private, nonprofit mutual insurance company that is the largest writer of workers' compensation insurance in Louisiana. The company carries an "A" (Excellent) rating from A.M. Best and, for the eighth consecutive year, was named one of the top 50 property and casualty insurance companies in the nation—out of more than 3,100—by Ward Group, the leading authority on insurance industry benchmarking.