Legal Developments

A group of insurance trade associations has proposed a new federal program that would provide revenue replacement for businesses affected by future pandemics. The taxpayer-backed Business Continuity Protection Program would provide participating businesses with revenue replacement assistance for payroll, employee benefits, and operating expenses following a presidential viral emergency declaration. Read More

Legislation that would nullify business interruption (BI) exclusions in existing US insurance policies would pose an existential threat to property-casualty insurers, according to a recent commentary from A.M. Best. In the United States, most commercial insurance policies exclude losses caused by communicable diseases or viruses. Read More

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the CIC Services, LLC, challenge of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) position that micro-captives are "transactions of interest" that should be reported to the IRS. In 2019, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling supporting the position of the IRS. Read More

A group of insurance industry trade organizations expressed opposition to a draft bill that would require insurers to offer pandemic business interruption coverages. Such a measure "would threaten the very existence of the business interruption insurance market," the groups said. Read More

A letter to US Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) takes issue with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) treatment of so-called 831(b) captive insurance companies. The current COVID-19 pandemic underscores the importance of captive insurance programs to midmarket companies, the letter says, but the IRS is targeting and harassing small captives. Read More