Is assigned risk as bad as people say?

It is more expensive and it is not a disaster, and it cannot turn you down — which is the point of it. What it does not give you is choice of carrier, much service, or dividend and credit programs. Treat it as a bridge: it keeps you legally compliant and working while you fix whatever caused the decline. Businesses that stay in it for years usually do so because nobody re-marketed them, not because nothing else was available.

Which classes are genuinely hard?

Roofing, framing, tree work, demolition, excavation, trucking, staffing, and anything at height or with heavy machinery — plus any class where you have frequency. But the class alone rarely settles it. A roofer with a clean five-year record, documented fall protection and a return-to-work program is placeable; one with three claims in two years is not, whatever the trade. The controllable half is usually bigger than owners assume.

How do PEOs and state funds compare?

A state fund gives you a normal standalone policy and nothing else. A PEO gives you comp inside a large pool plus bundled payroll, benefits and HR, and takes over as employer of record. If what you need is a comp policy, the state fund is usually simpler and cheaper. If the class is genuinely hard, or you want the HR infrastructure anyway, the PEO earns its keep. Price both — the bundled structure makes them hard to compare on premium alone, and that is exactly why they should be quoted side by side.

Nobody will write our workers comp. What are the actual options?

Four, and most businesses are only told about one. A competitive state fund, which exists in many states and is a normal placement rather than a last resort. An assigned risk plan, which every state has and which cannot refuse you. A PEO, where your staff join a much larger pool. Or the surplus lines market for genuinely unusual exposures. Being declined by a preferred carrier is the start of the conversation, not the end of it — and the reason for the decline usually points at which of the four fits.

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The detail

Every state provides a residual market mechanism — an assigned risk plan or a state fund — so that an employer required to carry workers compensation can obtain it even when no voluntary carrier will write them.
National Council on Compensation Insurance

What this means for you

Find out WHY you were declined. Class code, mod, a single large claim and a lapse in cover all lead to different answers, and the decline reason is usually available.
Check the state fund before assuming assigned risk. In most states it is a straightforward placement and it is cheaper than the residual market.
Assigned risk is a floor, not a destination. Plan the route out — clean years, documented safety program, corrected mod — from the day you go in.
Verify the class code first. A business coded into a higher-hazard class than it belongs in is being declined for someone else’s risk, and it is a common and correctable error.

Go deeper on any of these

Need this handled?

We do the filings, and we place the accounts other brokers decline — lapsed authority, claims history, new ventures. Tell us the situation and a licensed human replies the same business day.