Insurers Warn Companies of Cancellations
Thursday, November 15th, 2001 Catastrophe Legislation & Regulation Risk ManagementInsurers have started warning thousands of companies that policies will be canceled in 45 days, as Congress remains deadlocked over how to help the industry survive any huge claims resulting from terrorism, according to a Nov. 13 report in The Wall Street Journal. Insurers also are petitioning each of the states to exempt them from offering terrorism coverage after Dec. 31 if lawmakers fail to act promptly. That would pose a conundrum for the states, many of which would have to review the requests before the end of the year, when approximately 70 percent of commercial policies with terrorism provisions expire. Insurance companies and brokers speculate that if a government backstop program isn‘t in place by early December to protect insurers from terror-related claims, the already-sputtering economy could falter even more.
