By Conor Redmond, Chief Insurance Officer – BriteCo
At BriteCo, we’re trying to do everything we can to support our jeweler partners across the country during this challenging time. We’ve had several of our jeweler partners asking about the risk of losing their store insurance through cancellations or non-renewals due to payment issues. While BriteCo focuses on providing personal jewelry insurance and does not offer commercial policies to jewelers, we thought this information could be useful.
As a licensed insurance agent and fully credentialed actuary, I’ve put together a summary of all state departments of insurance mandates and recommendations around cancellations or non-renewals of policies for non-payment. You can download the PDF summary here.
What should I do if I can’t make a business insurance policy payment?
These state insurance department rules and recommendations could be useful for jewelers who may be unable to make a business insurance payment or need to defer payments for block, liability, property, or worker’s comp policies. We’re providing this information to help you stay informed about what your state is telling your insurance company.
If you find yourself unable to pay an upcoming business insurance premium you should first contact your insurance company directly to explain the situation and arrange for a deferred payment or other option. This insurance summary PDF gives you an idea of what to expect.
The sheet is organized alphabetically by state, referencing the state department of insurance website and telephone number. It gives a short description of each state’s position on insurance cancellations and renewals for non-payment along with a web link to the state’s official published statement, if available.
For example, Georgia has a 60-day cancellation moratorium for non-payment of premium. Other states such as Missouri “strongly encourage insurers not to cancel, non-renew, or terminate coverage for non payment.” We were not able to discover any official declarations from some states, including Kansas and Kentucky.
We will be updating the summary sheet periodically as more states publish their official positions on cancellations and non-renewals. You can sign up for updates by providing an email address below.
If you have any specific questions, you can contact me at [email protected]. Be well. Be safe.
Also Check:
Article
Blog
