Ask Tim; Industry News

​<a title="Tommy Gao, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HurricaneIdaNYC2021.jpg"> As we're sure you know, horrible flooding hit the New York City metro area yesterday as the remnants of Hurricane Ida arrived, dumping a shocking amount of rain, stranding commuters, and costing lives. The loss of life is tragic and immeasurable, and the disruption to the lives of survivors is immense. And property was damaged. The Big I NY and Big I CT research departments have received questions from members about how personal and commercial property insurance may apply. Unfortunately, the news isn't good.Many commercial property insurance policies contain exclusions similar to this one from the ISO…

​Property-casualty broker (BR)  licenses for insurance agencies are coming up for renewal this October 31, and some of you who have renewed already are noticing a change. For as long as anyone can remember, BR licenses have expired on Oct. 31 in even-numbered years. That has changed.In 2017, the New York State Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo enacted a change in the licensing law, a change written by Big I New York. Any license, whether it is a broker license or an agent (PC or LA) license, issued to a business organization will expire on June 30 in odd-numbered years. Under the old law, agencies…

​The news about the COVID-19 coronavirus is growing more alarming by the day.  As of February 27, the World Health Organization reported more than 82,000 confirmed cases worldwide. While nearly 79,000 of those cases were in China, another 3,664 confirmed cases were in 46 other countries, including the U.S. There have been 57 deaths from the virus outside China. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned ​that "It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness​." Big…