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Dear <<First Name>>,
I wanted to reach out to you, specifically regarding COVID-19, and how business insurance reacts. Certain types of commercial insurance policies include "loss of income" or "business interruption" coverage. The purpose of this coverage is respond to a covered loss of physical damage at an insured location or location related to an insured's operation. The problem with COVID-19 from an insurance standpoint is that it's not considered physical damage. Additionally, many policies include a "communicable disease" exclusion. A global pandemic is not something insurance companies foresaw or intended to cover; in fact, there is no such thing as pandemic coverage in the insurance marketplace at this time.
With that in mind, I have read some articles written by some very sharp attorneys, insurance folks, and others as to how or why an insurance policy could end up covering COVID-19 business income losses. Additionally, there is some chance our state or federal governments can require insurance companies to cover the virus, although I'm not sure how likely that is.
Also, if you have added delivery services to your business operations but do not have an auto policy in place, please contact us as soon as possible. We will need to confirm whether you have hired/non-owned auto coverage on your existing policy. You may need a stand-alone commercial auto policy covering owned autos.
Finally, I believe business income losses related to COVID-19 will be denied; however, this situation is unprecedented. No two carriers are the same, so it doesn't necessarily hurt you to file a claim. Regardless of any past communication that we've had with you in the past week, my recommendation now and moving forward is to go ahead and file a business income claim with your carrier if you have experienced a loss of income related to COVID-19. I have provided a list of carriers and their claims information below if you would like to go ahead and do that. I will do everything within my power to push any possible claim to be covered. If you don’t see your carrier below, please refer to your policy claims instructions or call our office at 818-302-3060.
Thank you,
Timothy Gaspar
CEO
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