Property & Casualty Insurance - YouTube

Hello, everyone. And welcome to Innovative's  Executive Interview Series. My name is Mark  

Sulpizio. I'm a partner at Innovative. Today's  guest is Ken Dash, managing director at Dash &  

Love, a leading property and casualty consulting  firm in Philadelphia. Today, we're going to talk  

about COVID-19 and its impact on the property  and casualty insurance business with Ken. But  

before we get started, Ken, why don't you tell us  a little bit about yourself and about Dash & Love.

Thank you. Dash & Love was  founded in 1930 by my grandfather.  

We are a fourth-generation family business  that recently merged with a national insurance  

brokerage firm by the name of Risk Strategies.  We are the 11th largest insurance brokerage  

firm in the country with about 100 offices  throughout the nation and now in Canada.

Oh, great. Going international I see.

We're trying.

All right, the first question we're going to have  is the stories you're hearing in the press about  

business interruption insurance and how  many employers have been denied coverage  

for business interruption as we result of COVID.  

What do you advise your clients  to do that have these policies?

We are advising our clients to file claims  in the event that there is legislation  

that is passed that will force insurance companies  to actually pay their business interruption claims  

and/or if they do not have a virus  exclusion in their policy, potentially hire  

coverage counsel to file claims on their  behalf to force the insurance companies to pay.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, if you've  got your claim filed and you're in line,  

it doesn't guarantee that you're going to get  paid on your claim, but at least if there is  

legislation or there is a court case that is  favorable in another jurisdiction, you very well  

may be the recipient of that. And by having filed  your claim, you will not then get into a herd  

of everyone else who's now going to  be scrambling to file their claims.

Oh, okay. Well, thank you. Also, many  employers are facing cash flow issues  

as a result of the decreased business  activity as a result of COVID.  

You had mentioned there's possible strategies  from a property and casualty perspective  

that could be used to improve cash flow for  employers. Can you expand on some of those?

Sure. So Mark, what we've been advising  our clients is very simple. We have to  

look at every single insurance policy  that they have and how the exposures  

generate premium on those policies. So you may  be aware of workers' compensation or general  

liability insurance and the likes. Well, those  policies are based on gross revenue in many cases  

or estimated payroll. So if you furloughed  employees or your revenue is down because  

you've been affected by the pandemic,  what we've been advising is to midterm  

adjust your policies, advise your insurance broker  of what revenue reduction you've experienced,  

what payroll reduction you've experienced,  then have a midterm endorsement issued  

so you're not paying money out of pocket  for an exposure that you just don't have.

Okay, interesting. Yeah, that's good  advice. And our final question today is  

what changes do you see in the  property and casualty business,  

especially in ensuring provisions  and so on as a result of COVID-19?

Well, it's already changed. So unfortunately,  as people understand insurance companies,  

they would prefer not to pay  losses and be as profitable  

as possible. And given all the  litigation and lawsuits in COVID,  

what we have seen is on just about every renewal  insurance carriers adding a communicable disease  

exclusion under the liability portion of the  policy. So let's say you're a restaurant or  

let's say you're a condominium association or  apartment building owner and you get sued by  

someone saying that they contracted COVID eating  in your restaurant or living in your apartment  

building. In the past, the insurance carriers  would not have an exclusion and would defend.  

Now, because there's no safe haven or safe harbor  act or immunity by the government, the insurance  

carriers are being forced to add these exclusions  on the liability side of the policy, which can  

make it a huge challenge for a business who's  just trying to reopen and do the right thing.

Okay. Well, thank you. That is the end of our  program today. Ken, I'd like to thank you for  

joining us and sharing your expertise on COVID  and its impact in the property and casualty  

field. If anyone has questions on the  program, please feel free to email us  

at [email protected]. And be safe, everyone.  That is the end our program today. Thanks, Ken.

Thanks, Mark. Thanks for having me.  I appreciate it. You have a good day.