Industry News

The Reinsurance Association of America along with a coalition including other insurance industry trade groups and business organizations sent a letter to federal government leaders urging them to support the COVID-19 Business and Employee Continuity and Recovery Fund, a solution to support businesses and employees hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Many healthcare facilities addressing the COVID-19 pandemic are suffering significant daily loss of revenue. Their property insurance policies frequently contain limitations on business interruption coverage. Property policies written for healthcare institutions frequently contain broad limitations on business interruption coverage caused by the cascading effect of dealing with the coronavirus.

Many businesses have been ordered shut to try to contain the outbreak, while shelter-in-place orders and social distancing are dramatically reducing business for those that are open. Coverage issues around business interruption losses related to COVID-19 have prompted discussions of creating a federal pandemic backstop.

The Bermuda Captive Conference (BCC) has been rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bermuda Captive Conference committee said it decided to reschedule the June event to new dates of September 9–11 due to the global impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Don't miss the April issue of "Captive Insurance Company Reports" ("CICR"), in which John Thomson, editor, expresses his concerns and comments on COVID-19 and the risk management implications, including a role for captives.

London-based Airmic has joined the ranks of industry organizations canceling their annual conferences due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Airmic's conference had been scheduled for June in Edinburgh. Airmic said it came to the decision after working through the association's risk management process and considering different scenarios.

A captive insurance educational forum in Mexico that was postponed because of the COVID-19 outbreak has been rescheduled. The forum, to which the state of Vermont and the Vermont Captive Insurance Association planned to send a delegation of captive experts, will now be held September 22.

The North Carolina Captive Insurance Association has rescheduled its 2020 Annual Conference to August 30 through September 2, 2020, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The conference venue remains the Washington Duke Inn in Durham, North Carolina. The conference was originally scheduled for May 13–15.

The Captive Insurance Council of the District of Columbia, Inc. (CIC-DC), has canceled its annual conference due to the COVID-19 virus. The event was scheduled for May 5–6 in Washington, DC. CIC-DC announced on March 23 that it intends to reschedule the conference later this year.

The Texas Captive Insurance Association (TxCIA) has postponed its annual conference due to uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance regarding large gatherings. The TxCIA said it is currently targeting a September-October time frame for the rescheduled event.

The board of the Western Region Captive Insurance Conference (WRCIC) has canceled this year's conference due to COVID-19. The WRCIC board said it has been monitoring and assessing the travel and health issues associated with COVID-19 and decided it was necessary to cancel the event.

A.M. Best announced that it's developing stress testing that it will conduct on all its rated insurance companies' balance sheets to gauge the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on risk-adjusted capital levels, investment portfolios, reserve adequacy, and other aspects of risk borne by rated companies.

Captive insurance companies will no doubt feel the impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the COVID-19 disease it causes, both in the near term and possibly in the future as captive owners look to close holes the outbreak is revealing in insurance programs.

The Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) has canceled its 2020 Annual Conference & Exhibition due to COVID-19. The event was scheduled for May 3–6 in Denver. RIMS noted that it's the first time in the organization's 70-year history that it has been forced to cancel its annual conference.

In yet another impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the captive insurance industry, captive manager Strategic Risk Solutions (SRS) disclosed Monday that it will close all offices, except for essential staff. The Boston-based captive manager will move all meetings from in person to online and will suspend all business-related travel.

Another industry gathering has been canceled due to COVID-19 with the Self-Insurance Institute of America, Inc. (SIIA), announcing it had canceled this week's Self-Insured Health Plan Executive Forum. SIIA said fast-moving developments around the spread of COVID-19 forced the association's board to cancel the gathering.

Lance Abbott, president of BevCap Management, LLC, has been elected chair of the board of directors of the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA). CICA's board also elected Robert "Skip" Myers as vice chair and Renea Louie as secretary/treasurer.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has canceled its in-person spring national meeting and instead will hold the meeting in a virtual-only format due to COVID-19. The NAIC said a revised schedule with dates, times, and call-in numbers will be available next week at the organization’s website, NAIC.org.

Year over year, nearly all lines of insurance business experienced an increase in average premium renewal rate in February, according to the February results of the "IVANS Index." The lone exception to the premium increase trend, according to IVANS, was workers compensation, which continued its negative trend.