Letter to Industry Addressing COVID-19
Commissioner Rosendale recommends several steps industry can take to ease the burden on consumers during this challenging time.
March 26, 2020
To all Insurance Companies across all lines of business, all Licensed Producers, Independent Adjusters, and Other Interested Parties:
Thank you in advance for your continued work to assist Montanans with their insurance needs during this uncertain and rapidly-changing time.
I am writing to provide several recommendations to help consumers as we all get through the COVID-19 pandemic together. With your assistance and flexibility, Montana consumers will be able to more easily navigate their financial and insurance situations over the next several days, weeks, and months.
I have been in touch with the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA). They have shared with me their messaging to their members and the general public, and have provided me with a wealth of information of the various steps their members are taking to ease consumer burdens during this time. I am glad to see many voluntary actions being taken, such as flexible payment plans, cancellation suspensions, and philanthropic aid.
Below are several recommendations to help Montanans during the COVID-19 situation. Please consider these recommendations based on their practicality, relevance, and impact to your unique business and individual customers. The below list is not exhaustive; be creative in problem solving for Montana consumers while maintaining your obligations and solvency for your customers.
- Flexible payment solutions for families, individuals, and businesses; providing additional time to make payments; allowing grace periods to delay premium payments
- Suspending premium billing for small businesses such as restaurants, bars, and others that have been shut down or had their operations severely reduced, for a specific number of days or billing cycles
- Waiving insurance premium late fees and other fees for families, individuals, and businesses
- Pausing cancellation of coverage for motorists due to temporary non-payment and policy expiration
- Expediting/expanding automobile coverage to allow personal vehicles to be covered while delivering food, medicine, or other essential provisions for commercial purposes
- Streamline administrative processes and paperwork to ease consumer burdens and facilitate continuous coverage
If there are any regulatory hurdles that are preventing or slowing your implementation of flexibility measures to aid Montana consumers, please let me know immediately so that I can evaluate those concerns.
Now is the time to be proactive. I will be sending a press release shortly outlining the contents of this memo to the general public, and asking Montana consumers to reach out to their respective insurance producers before any potential missed payments or defaults occur. I am making a similar ask of you: please reach out to your customers as soon as possible and tell them how you can assist them during this time, what flexible options you are making available, and what they can do to maintain insurance coverage and benefits with as few headaches as possible.
Sincerely,
Matt Rosendale
NOTE: CSI is maintaining a new webpage with all COVID-19-related information: https://csimt.gov/covid-19-info/. This letter and other information is available on that page.
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