Consider the following loss scenario.
September 15, 2010. It is the beginning
of the financial planning process for ACME Manufacturing Company, a maker of
critical components for the automobile manufacturing industry and other businesses
located within a radius of 50 miles of its main manufacturing location. KEY
Company, located 10 miles from ACME's main site just announced it will contract
with ACME to exclusively manufacture certain parts for one of its key machines,
which will boost ACME's estimated 2011 sales by 15 percent and annual profit
by more than 10 percent. The ACME risk manager is just completing the final
activities of ACME's property insurance renewal that will be effective on October
1, 2010. The risk manager is satisfied with the overall renewal terms offered
"as is"—same coverage and premium as expiring terms and conditions. He decides
to review the renewal coverage terms with ACME's business continuity team, led
by the CFO, which includes senior members of business lines, human resources,
legal, and the risk manager.
August 15, 2011. A major windstorm hits
an industrial center in the Midwest with tornadic winds, heavy hail, and rain.
Local rivers flooded causing people to vacate homes and businesses. ACME Manufacturing
experienced heavy building damage from winds and flooding that in turn caused
damage to critical manufacturing equipment. Electrical power will be out for
days—maybe for 2 weeks. ACME has several vital suppliers in the local area that
have been severely affected by the storm and will be offline at least as long
as ACME. In addition KEY Company located about 10 miles away, has experienced
significant devastation, and it is uncertain if it can return to normal business
activities within 6 months.
August 18, 2011. The first day ACME's risk
manager is allowed access to his office at the main ACME manufacturing location.
He reads an email from ACME's CFO requesting an outline of how and to what
extent ACME's insurance will respond to this disaster and how to pay ACME employees,
a very skilled workforce, during the period of reconstruction.
How will the risk manager respond to the CFO? How you would respond?
Time Element Insurance
There are many facts to consider in the ACME loss scenario and hopefully
one that is more hypothetical than real to any member of our risk management
community. But events happen that are often beyond our control. Risk management
as a practice begins with exposure analysis and is the only way for any risk
management professional to implement appropriate techniques, including effective
use of insurance. Only when loss exposures are identified, understood, and continually
monitored will the risk management professional be in a position to address
catastrophic loss and disruptions in the organization's ability to create a
profit.
The ACME/KEY loss scenario is a means to examine ways that time element insurance
can be used to replace interrupted income streams, regain profits, and pay continuing
expenses (including payroll) to financially stabilize the organization while
it rebuilds or repairs damaged buildings and contents. What is "time element"
insurance? The IRMI Glossary of Insurance & Risk Management Terms defines
time element insurance as:
A property insurance term referring to coverage for loss resulting
from the inability to put damaged property to its normal use. This type of coverage
is called "time element" insurance because the amount of loss depends on how
long it takes to repair or replace the damaged property. The best known types
of time element insurance are loss of business income and extra expense coverage.
For our purposes, we will refer to loss of profits and continuing expenses
as "loss of income" and increased operating expenses as "extra expense." This
terminology is fairly consistent within the risk management community, although
one may find insurers and their independently filed forms with a slight variation
in title of coverage.
Why use the quotes shown above? Risk of loss evolves; it is rarely—if ever—static.
Time element exposures such as sales, profit, operating expense, payroll, repair/reconstruction
time do change, and the risk management professional must continually assesses
how the organizations produces capital and what situations can impair revenue
streams (sales, rents, royalties, grants, etc.) and increase operating expenses.
To paraphrase LBJ and Horace, we need to look forward—yesterday is gone (whew!)
but tomorrow is new and uncertain (oh no!) and, thus, we as risk managers must
"seize the moment" to understand what is or will be new to our organization.
Quantify the Exposure
Risk treatment for time element exposures begins with a decision on methodology
to estimate the loss of income exposure. A common approach is to complete a
worksheet using the organization's current and projected financial statement
information (profit/loss, cash flows, balance sheet) to annualize all income,
expenses, and profit. We will assume a deduction method worksheet is used for
loss of income purposes even though a "build up" methodology is sometimes used.
Extra expenses as a result of an insured event can be difficult to identify
as well as quantify, but worksheets are available for assistance. The terms
used in time element coverage forms may not necessarily be the same terms used
by a CPA or as found in a financial statement. The risk management professional
needs to understand how to read a balance sheet and income statement in order
to obtain data to complete a time element worksheet. A risk management professional
should always seek assistance from the organization's finance staff if financial
and accounting terminology is not understood. It is always better to seek help
than to jeopardize an organization's insurance coverage, especially time element.
For the duration of this article we will discuss only "loss of income" exposures
and coverage issues.
The "loss of income" exposure is defined in the business income coverage
form, which for our purposes will be Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) form
CP 00 30 04 021, and can be expressed simply as:
Loss of Pretax Profit + Continuing Expenses = Insurable Loss
of Income
Why use pretax profit? Because any loss of income payment received by the
organization will be treated as "income" and therefore may be subject to federal
and state corporate income tax. This formula is expressed in business income
worksheets such as CP 15 15 06 952 filed by ISO.
This formula creates the expected annual values for the coverage period (policy
period); the worksheet is not to be completed in terms of what the risk management
professional expects the period of interruption to be, i.e., 90 days, 120 days,
etc.
Insurers may use ISO filings or independent filings for business income coverage
but the business income form and its worksheets are fairly uniform in intent
of the terms "income" and "continuing expense." If the property insurance policy
coverage territory is defined to be the United States (including its territories
and possessions), Puerto Rico, and Canada, then the business income worksheet
should be completed for only these country exposures. A separate business income
worksheet and coverage form/policy (building, contents, and loss of income)
will be needed to obtain local (admitted) and/or difference-in-conditions (DIC)
(nonadmitted) insurance coverage for countries not considered part of the US
policy definition of covered territory.
Value To Insure
To set prudent business income coverage limits, the risk management professional
must understand when business income coverage
begins and ends and if the coverage is subject to a coinsurance clause. ISO
business income form CP 00 30 04 02 terms and conditions are similar to that
found in most business income forms. The ISO coverage grant states that business
income coverage begins 1–72 hours after the time of direct physical loss or
damage, and for extra expense coverage, immediately after the time of direct
physical loss or damage. The damage must be caused by or result from a covered
cause of loss on an insured premises. (The coverage waiting period may be less
or more than 72 hours depending on insurer. A business income waiting period
should always be viewed in terms of actual dollar impact on the organization's
retained amount to understand the "deductible" effect the waiting period will
have on the organization's cash flow for normally expected profits and continuing
expenses.) Under the ISO form, coverage ends on "the date when the property
at the described premises should be repaired, rebuilt, or replaced with reasonable
speed and similar quality; or the date when business is resumed at a new permanent
location …," whichever is earlier.
The limit chosen by the risk management professional needs to be an amount
equal to that subject to catastrophic loss (fire, windstorm, earthquake) for
the amount of time (worst case) that the organization may have its operations
suspended but in no event in an amount that does not satisfy a coinsurance clause.
If a disaster is thought to have an impact of more than 1 year on operations,
then the limit should assume more than a 12-month exposure. If it is thought
that in a worst case loss scenario that the organization may have operations
suspended for 15 months, then the 12-month exposure from the worksheet should
be increased by 125 percent (i.e., 15/12 = 125 percent).
Extended Period of Indemnity
Business income coverage will end when the damage is repaired, rebuilt, or
replaced or date business is resumed at a new permanent location. While policy
wording is specific as to the end date of business income coverage, it does
not necessarily mean that the organization's "business" in terms of sales, income,
or profit is back to normal. Certain industries may suffer a period of reduced
sales, income, and profit even after all damage is repaired, rebuilt, or replaced.
Retail establishments (restaurants, clothing stores, dry cleaners, etc.), as
an example, may have to "wait" for prior clientele to come back after being
out of business for a period of time.
The ISO form CP 00 30 04 02 takes this continuing exposure into consideration
by extending business income coverage for 30 consecutive days past the actual
date of final repair, rebuilding, or replacement. The risk management professional
will need to consider the organization's susceptibility to rebuilding its customer
base and need for more than 30 days of extended coverage. Some insurers will
provide an insured an extended period of indemnity option up to 365 days. There
is a cost for this added coverage, so the risk management professional should
seek an appropriate extended time limit to be insured after comparing coverage
to cost of insurance.
Schools, such as colleges and universities, may need a special extended period
of indemnity to address a loss of students even after the school's facilities
are repaired. The period of time needed to resume normal operations and normal
income through tuition and fees may be long if students leave for other campuses
to fulfill their needs for higher education.
Payroll
A major expense for any organization is employee payroll and benefits (if
directly related to payroll and paid by the organization: FICA payments, union
dues, and workers compensation premiums) and one that must be reviewed and understood
prior to loss as to the extent, if any, that should be continued during the
period of restoration. An organization can decide to treat all payroll and benefits
as a continuing expense and not remove it from the worksheet and thereby include
all within the limit insured. Some organizations may decide that it can lay
off certain employees that are not critical for the organization's recovery
during the period of restoration. Each organization is different in terms of
employee skills, local job markets (low or high unemployment), and cost to retain
new employees when prior ones are not available for rehire.
The typical approach for most organizations is to decide what class(es) of
employees should be paid during the period of restoration and which ones should
not. Most insurers use the term "ordinary payroll" to define that which may
be excluded totally or paid for a specific period of time (90 days, 180 days,
etc.) by the named insured. Ordinary payroll is a term defined by ISO in form
CP 15 10 06 073 as "payroll expenses for all your
employees except: officers; executives; department managers; employees under
contract; and additional Exemptions, shown in the Schedule as: Job Classifications;
or employees." It is possible that certain employees by name or class may fall
within the definition of "ordinary payroll" but the organization deems their
contribution to be needed during the period of restoration. An exemption to
the broad definition of "ordinary payroll" can be used in order to continue
payroll and benefits for these key employees. ISO Form CP 15 04 06 074
Discretionary Payroll Expense is used for this purpose.
Contingent Exposures
When one thinks of business income exposures and coverage, it is usually
in terms of insured damage and suspension of the
organization's operations at
its premises as the insured location for
building and contents. But in a complex trading world, a risk management professional
must review all income streams, expenses, and processes to identify all exposures
that may lead to a loss of business income. It is entirely possible that the
most significant business income exposure to an organization is not related
at all to its premises but that of another such as key supplier, key customer,
adjacent building, or even key object such as bridge or roadway. The risk management
professional must think in terms of contingent exposures; what can happen elsewhere
to disrupt operations at any of my organization's locations? Consider the following
scenarios and their possible solutions.
Key supplier—An adverse event at key component
supplier (significant fire) may in turn lead to lost sales to an organization
if it cannot make critical purchases from other suppliers.
Key customer—An adverse event at key customer
(significant fire) may lead to lost sales to your organization.
Solution—Contingent business income coverage
for the organization may be available to address these exposures through policy
forms such as ISO CP 15 08 06 075 "Business Income
from Dependent Properties."
Adjacent building—Fire occurs at major
building down the street from your organization's facilities. While there is
no damage to any property of your organization, it nevertheless loses sales
for a period of time when local fire department declares area unsafe and stops
all incoming traffic to your organization.
Solution—Civil authority coverage is typically
provided in a business income form. The risk management professional will need
to review the exposure to determine if the insured period of time is sufficient
for a foreseeable event and if the waiting period before coverage applies is
appropriate. Changes in coverage will need to be considered and sought as deemed
necessary.
Key object—A bridge to one of the organization's
key operations is only way in and out of the location. If a flood washes the
bridge away, there will be a significant potential for curtailed sales as the
organization waits for the bridge to be repaired and normal operations can resume.
Solution—Coverage for lack of ingress/egress
may be needed and available although coverage may not be available from all
property insurers. The risk management professional will need to review the
exposure to determine if an insured period of time and waiting period for a
foreseeable event is acceptable and cost effective.
Utility Interruptions—An impairment in
incoming utilities such as electricity, water, telephone, and Internet may cause
a loss of income to the organization even if no direct property damage results.
Solution—Various coverage forms are available
from ISO and through independent filings of insurers that address an interruption
in incoming utilities as stated above or even an interruption in outgoing services,
such as sewer and other waste water. The risk management professional will need
to review each specific exposure to determine if an insured period of time and
waiting period for a foreseeable event is acceptable and cost effective.
Conclusion
ACME's risk manager presents the CFO with a 3-page executive summary in which
the organization's building and contents damage is summarized by estimated cost
of repair, deductible expense, and expected time of suspended operations as
outlined in ACME's business continuity plan (BCP) that had been updated just
a few months before the August 15, 2011, loss event. The report includes estimated
recoveries for loss of business income from ACME's damaged locations and that
of a contingent nature of its key customer. The risk manager had studied the
exposures created by use of KEY and decided contingent business income coverage
was necessary. Cash flow subject to waiting period is identified and well within
the CFO's prior guidelines on risk tolerance (self-assumption of risk by deductible
and waiting period).
No dependent property coverage was purchased for possible interruption in
ACME operations due to loss of operations by local suppliers since ACME's BCP
had determined sufficient parts were available from alternate suppliers. Ordinary
payroll is insured for 30 days with a 120-day exemption for several key employees.
The CFO is satisfied with how ACME property insurance program responded to the
loss especially that considered business income coverage.