What You Should Do About Impending Adirondack Cancellations
On December 31, 2024, all remaining personal lines insurance policies issued by Adirondack Insurance Exchange and Mountain Valley Indemnity Co. will be cancelled:
Adirondack’s Demotech Rating Withdrawn (May 29, 2024)
Adirondack Insurance Exchange: Your Questions Answered (June 18, 2024)
Adirondack To Agents: Start Replacing Our Policies (July 11, 2024)
Adirondack Insurance Exchange, Mountain Valley Advise Clients To Replace Their Policies (July 23, 2024)
Adirondack, Mountain Valley Withdrawal From the Market: Your Questions Answered (Aug. 2, 2024)
We know that Big I New York members who were agents of those companies have been under enormous strain. You have been completing new applications and trying to replace the policies in a market with little capacity for them. In addition, members have told us that, despite multiple efforts to contact affected clients, some clients have not responded. Some of them will wake up on New Year’s Day without home insurance.
Because of this, many of you are naturally concerned about your errors and omissions liability exposure. Clients who have uninsured losses may threaten legal action. To protect your businesses, here’s what we suggest:
Consider making one final written attempt at outreach. We developed a form letter last summer for our members to use when writing to affected clients.
Consider (if you have not already done so) contacting clients in multiple ways– U.S. mail, email, phone calls, and text messages. Give them many opportunities to receive your message.
Document every communication attempt you make. Make notes in your agency management system if you have one or in electronic or paper client files if you do not. Note the date and time you called or emailed; the name of the person you contacted; the name of the person who answered the phone if you left a message; and any other key details. The late attorney Jim Keidel frequently referred to documentation as an agency’s “get out of jail free card” (Monopoly players will get the meaning). Your documentation will help your agency beat an E&O claim if a client pursues one.
This is the worst personal lines insurance market in memory. We hear every day from members struggling to take care of their clients. We have had regular meetings with the state Department of Financial Services since the Adirondack situation erupted to impress on them the need for reforms to keep carriers in the market:
Big I NY, DFS Meet a Second Time About Personal Lines Market (Aug. 1, 2024)
Advocating for Our Insurance Community: Addressing Market Challenges in New York (Aug. 23, 2024)
We expect to have another one soon. While we have no magic market solutions to offer (we wish we did,) please know that your representatives on the Big I New York board of directors and our staff are making every effort to return the markets to a condition where every person who needs to buy home and auto insurance can do so easily.
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