Commercial Insurance Coverage: Pandemic Risks & Natural Catastrophes

The evolving threats and crises of today's world, primarily COVID-19 and the increasing occurrences of natural disasters, has highlighted the lack of – and need for – insurance capacity and various lines of commercial insurance. Expanding coverage gaps present challenges for businesses across many industries, including real estate. A lack of adequate coverage will lead to economic uncertainty, harm stakeholders and undermine the growth of communities.

Pandemic-related coverage in various lines of commercial insurance has been withdrawn or restricted going forward. Additionally risks from natural disasters like floods, hurricanes, wildfires, hail, tornadoes, and drought cost the U.S. billions of dollars each year.

Position

Commercial insurance gaps related to pandemic risks and natural catastrophes can only be filled by a federal program that will provide the American economy with the resilience necessary to address systemic catastrophic events.

The Roundtable, along with its industry partners, continues to work constructively with policymakers and stakeholders to develop and enact an effective pandemic risk program. We also continue to work with our industry partner organizations to advocate for an improved National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that can be re-authorized for a lengthy time period.

 

Background

The Roundtable works with the Business Continuity Coalition (BCC), which represents a broad range of business insurance policyholders from across the American economy to develop an effective pandemic insurance program that protects jobs by ensuring business continuity from economic losses. The Roundtable works with the BCC and policymakers, the administration, and other U.S. stakeholders.

Under the federal National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), commercial property flood insurance limits are low—$500,000 per building and $500,000 for its contents. Given the low coverage amounts, it is important to exempt larger commercial loans from the mandatory NFIP purchase requirements.  A long-term reauthorization of the NFIP is essential for residential and commercial markets, overall natural catastrophe insurance market capacity, and the broader economy.

Additionally, The Roundtable works with its team from the Real Estate Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RE-ISAC) to disseminate threat information by providing actionable data on storms and evacuation activities and aids in the coordination of recovery operations and resources.

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