Insurance Outlook For 2021 – Insurence Finance

August 23, 2021October 22, 2021 - by Insurence Finance - 1247 Comments.

Although it may seem like the end of this pandemic is near, the shock waves that 2020 has created for the insurance industry will continue to reverberate for many years. Changes are on the horizon in 2021, from premiums to policy language and underwriting to government action.

Beyond the obvious impact of the pandemic on insurance losses, 2020 was also a significant year. It’s easy to forget about the historic hurricane season and its 30 named storms. The hellscape of wildfires in the West and Midwest, and the civil unrest that resulted in huge losses for cities across the country, are all easily forgotten.

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All that loss will most likely lead to higher premiums.

The elephant in the room was still COVID-19. Although most of the industry has policy language that excludes communicable diseases, nearly all new policies include pandemic exclusions. Even without pandemics in mind, underwriters will be likely to take a closer look at almost every risk for some time.

Insurance is not going away just like the risk isn’t going away. These are some of the ways that the industry will change over the next twelve months.

Business

The biggest disappointment for business owners was discovering that their business interruption policies did not cover pandemics. However, they didn’t hesitate to sue.

Pandemic exclusions will not change unless there are legislative mandates or judicial intervention.

Instead, business owners look for practical ways to reduce their liability and reopen as safely as possible. But liability remains a concern.

While some states have granted liability waivers to businesses that adhere to safety best practices, no federal protections have been implemented. Businesses will have to rely upon their business owner’s policies if an employee or customer claims that they contracted the virus at their business.

Workers’ compensation may also be affected by liability.

Unemployment insurance is one area where the federal government has intervened. The federal supplement has helped employees, but the question of the fate of state unemployment trust funds is still unanswered.

The state-based unemployment insurance is not designed to handle such an event. It will be interesting for the federal funds to supplement those funds, or whether state statutes kick in to pass the responsibility to the employers through higher taxes.

Travel insurance

Two of the most important components of travel insurance are trip cancellation and supplementary medical.

In overseas travels where the U.S. policy might not apply, the health component is essential. However, this element has been largely lost with the decline in overseas travel.

For now, the cancellation section is being continued with a large caveat. Pandemics, including COVID-19, in general, won’t be covered.

The possibility of overseas travel opening up in the latter part of the year may increase, but the chances that a policy will cover it are slim.

Event cancellation and contingency

Event cancellation policies are also available. However, they too can be found. They almost certainly exclude COVID-19 and any other communicable diseases. The current policies are limited to small-scale events.

However, any event must be allowed to take place in a legal and permitted area before it can be covered. If it’s allowed, then the next step will be to increase scrutiny by underwriters. They won’t sign off on events unless they’re extremely aboveboard.

Event size and logistics will both be important factors for underwriters. A policy will likely be granted for an outdoor concert rather than an indoor show of electronic dance music.

Production of film/TV

Producers have insurance policies that protect their productions. Cameras are rolling again. Many policies require massive self-insured parts and huge deductibles.

Even with tighter protocols for pandemics, some of these productions still experienced COVID-19 epidemics. In many cases, this caused the productions to close down.

The entertainment industry will likely keep its current stuttering start-stop pattern for the time being. However, the profit motive of creating new content will make it worth the effort.

Health/life

COVID-19 has disrupted the normal operation of life and health insurance policies.

The biggest concern in terms of insurance is how to pay for pandemics. Patients have forgone regular preventative care. This is the bigger problem. This is manifesting in three main ways.

It was difficult to set rates for 2021 because premiums are determined based on previous-year payouts. Insurers are concerned that there will be a backlog of cases in the system by 2021, which could lead to corresponding payouts. Industry watchers are concerned that people will not take care of chronic conditions and their health will suffer in the long term.

Paramedical exams are the most important question in life insurance. Despite many of the restrictions being lifted, some people still hesitate to allow nurses to visit their homes in order to obtain the necessary data for underwriting.

While some companies have offered no-exam policies in response, it is unclear how this will work out.
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Washington and the courts will determine the greatest intermediate impact.
The courts will have to decide whether event cancellation and business interruption policies are required to be paid despite contractual exclusions.

Businesses may also be protected by the law.

Industry insiders are most concerned about a federally-backed pooled pandemic risk system similar to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. Pandemics will not be covered without this type of intervention. A few bills are currently pending that could do that.