Please note our office will be closed Friday, March 29th in honor of the Easter holiday. We will reopen at 8:00 am on Monday, April 1st

Hurricane Florence

Newsletter – Monday, September 10, 2018

If your office is located in or you do business in traditional “coastal” areas you are probably already seeing various bulletins and advisories from your in-house carriers imposing binding restrictions or moratoriums.  These restrictions can cause a great deal of inconvenience and perhaps unwanted Errors and Omissions exposures.  If your agency is not in traditional coastal areas you may or may not be aware that carriers impose these kinds of restrictions. These restrictions and moratoriums most likely originate with the individual insurance carrier’s reinsurance treaty.  The details can vary greatly by company depending on the amount and quality of the reinsurance they have in place.

Some carriers eliminate binding of new business or increase in coverage on existing business for first and or second or third tier counties (the number of counties inland from the nearest coastal water)  Some carriers rely on a set mileage radius from the nearest coastal water.  To confuse matters, even more, the initial onset of restrictions could be predicated on the distance the storm is from shore, the possibility of a hurricane or tropical storm warnings within 48 or 72 hours or some other method.  We have one carrier that is imposing restrictions on the far Eastern counties of Pennsylvania!

Tuscano deals with a wide variety of insurance carriers.  As you can imagine the guidelines governing these circumstances can be very complex and constantly evolving. We do not ever want to have to deny binding a piece of business that you have quoted for an insured.  If you come to us to request binding on a piece of business or increase in coverage, our underwriters will let you know immediately if they can honor that request with the carrier that was quoted.  If that particular carrier has already imposed a moratorium, we will endeavor to provide you options with another carrier that has not yet imposed similar restrictions. Hopefully, Florence will weaken considerably or take a turn to the North sooner than predicted and miss the USA altogether.  But, if it follows it’s predicted path, we will work with you to provide the best possible solutions for your clients.

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