Property and Casualty Insurance Premiums Waived for Small Businesses

New York ordered property and casualty insurers to waive premiums for small businesses and consumers Monday.

The Department of Financial Services directed property and casualty insurers to provide a 60-day grace period to small businesses and consumers financially affected by Covid-19.

In the same regulation, it ordered life insurers regulated by the state to allow consumers to defer paying premiums for 90 days.

The emergency regulation enacts directions from an executive order Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed earlier Monday. It could offer relief for small businesses, which have been slammed by other parts of the insurance industry amid the Covid-19 crisis. Many who held business-interruption insurance discovered in recent weeks that their plan would not cover the coronavirus pandemic.

The executive order mandates insurers to allow deferred payments to be paid back in the year following the grace period and not to report any late payments to credit-rating agencies. It also calls on premium finance agencies to offer the same grace periods to businesses and consumers who financed payments on their premiums.