Industry News

​The New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board has announced a rule change that clarifies which operations should and should not be assigned to the marina classifications. The board also made the telecommuter classification more specific. If you provide Workers' Compensation insurance for these types of operations, you may want to inform your clients.The New York Workers' Compensation Manual has two classifications for marinas - code 6826F for employers subject to the U.S. Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Act, and code 6836 for employers who are subject only to the New York Workers' Comp law. The new rules clarify that these classifications apply to employers that have "boat…

​Employers will not face higher Workers' Compensation insurance premiums because of losses related to COVID-19, according to recent announcements by the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board​. The board said that it had received approval from the state Department of Financial Services for a rule change that will exclude from the Merit Rating Plan calculation "all claims attributable to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic​." This follows an earlier move to exclude these claims from the Experience Rating Plan calculation. At the time, the board said, "The occurrence of COVID-19 workers’ compensation claims is unlikely to be a predictor of future claim costs incurred by an employer, and therefore their…

​By Chris Boggs, the Big I’s Executive Director of Risk Management & Education​News reports from across the country tell of retailers boarding up their buildings in attempts to curtail damage from rioters post election. From an insurance perspective, are there any coverage issues these retailers should consider? Insurance coverage questions asked over the past several days in preparation for the election have center around several common terms:Riot,Civil unrest,Insurrection, and even War.Each read similarly, “If my insured’s property is damaged by (fill in the blank from above), is there coverage? Understand that no (or very few) coverage question(s) is/are answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” There is…