For the past three months, Oracle RMS staff has been working hard from home to cater to all areas of our clientele’s insurance needs during these COVID-19 times. While essential commercial businesses continue to operate from their storefront or are internally working from home, there are also many non-essential commercial businesses that had to temporarily shut down due to COVID-19.
The non-essential commercial businesses range from small to midsize businesses, which can be very difficult to maintain during these challenging times. That is why having commercial insurance is very crucial and important for all commercial businesses. During this time, to help business owners deal with the financial impact of COVID-19, insurance companies are helping all commercial businesses with their insurance by offering substantial consumer relief measures.
These insurance companies are helping customers by honouring requests to defer premiums, which can be spread out over the remaining payments on their policy or have them switch payment plans with no fee to do so (although any deferred payments will still be due in full).
Depending on the insurance carriers you’re insured with, they are also waiving NSF fees until further notice, adjusting revenue or fleet activity by endorsing policies with at least three months remaining mid-term to reflect the up-to-date information. They are also reducing or removing coverage while operations are suspended and/or providing rate reduction discounts.
Should a policy go into delinquency and cancellation due to non-payment, the insurance carriers will consider reinstating the policy and apply the 30-day hold on the account or a customized solution will be developed with the insured and the carrier. Regardless, if your policy has been cancelled due to non-payment, especially during this global pandemic, you should always contact your broker immediately.
All in all, a commercial insurance policy covers a wide scope of areas in coverage such as commercial general liability, commercial auto, commercial property and business interruption. Although these are typically the main coverages in a commercial insurance policy, it is also very broad as it can have additional coverage within it. That is why every commercial policy is different and customized at Oracle RMS.
With COVID-19 causing worldwide concern, many Canadian business owners are still left unaware of how their commercial insurance policy has been affected during this time because of how complex and specialized every policy may be. As previously mentioned, these substantial consumer relief measures all vary depending on which insurance carrier you’re also insured with.
Therefore, if you have any other questions or concerns regarding your commercial insurance policy during COVID-19 or have not yet requested a deferred premium, contact Oracle RMS immediately for more information.
