Important Information Regarding Business Income Coverage & COVID-19

We are all suffering from the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. While we don’t know when we will get back to our normal way of life and business, we want you to know that we are advocating for relief for you from this severe business interruption.

The insurance industry is an important backbone of our economy. While viruses are excluded from Loss of Business Income coverage, your commercial insurance coverage provides many protections for your business and must be healthy to ensure it is there to protect you from the common, everyday risks that could negatively impact your business. Therefore, insurance must remain strong and we must not adopt proposals that would create a dangerous precedent and potentially bankrupt the insurance industry making it even harder for us to recover from this economic disaster.

We are calling on our federal leaders to adopt real solutions that will get resources into the hands of business owners immediately. With the passage of the massive Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act last Friday, further Congressional, we anticipate further action will take place to provide more relief, such as a federal mechanism to compensate businesses for business interruption losses and employee indemnity and medical benefits resulting from the outbreak that would not otherwise be covered by workers compensation insurance. While timing is very uncertain for when Congress will be back in session, there is already pressure and conversations on a possible phase four Coronavirus legislative package.

The Federal CARES Act is a good start to providing immediate relief to individuals and small businesses all over the country. However, more relief must come to recover from the loss of business income claims that we are anticipating. These are incredibly complex claims to adjudicate and rather than creating government bureaucracy to administer a federal relief program, we believe the existing insurance infrastructure is a good outlet for administering these claims and providing immediate relief to your business.

We continue to strongly encourage you to file a business income claim if you believe you have an interruption to your business. Here is a Business Income Tracker (a sample worksheet) which details information you will need to gather to provide evidence of your business finances prior to the interruption as well as track your ongoing expenses during the interruption.

A federal solution must be provided to prevent our businesses and communities from being permanently impacted due to this outbreak. These are unprecedented times and extraordinary measures must be taken to fix it.  If you are curious, please read the Wall Street Journal's editorial on how forcing insurance companies to pay for such losses could affect the industry.  Please contact us if you have any questions about potential relief packages being considered.

***Please note that these updates can change day by day and we are providing this information to you, to the best of our knowledge.  We suggest that you sign up with your company online and/or mobile app so you can have up to date notifications of coverage changes and assistance.

Etler Kettenacker Agency is working remotely but we are here for you when you need us!

Visit our Contact Us page for updated contact information.  Please stay safe and healthy!