Catastrophe Claims: Insurance Coverage for Natural and Man-Made Disasters

In insurance parlance, a catastrophe is an unusually severe disaster impacting many insurers and policyholders. The economic costs of last year's catastrophic events came to $225 billion with insurance covering $90 billion of the overall total--64 percent incurred in the United States--and creating the fourth costliest year on record of insured losses.

When individuals or businesses do not have coverage for a catastrophe loss--or when the coverage they have is inadequate--they will look to intermediaries, agents, and brokers who sold them their policies for uninsured recovery. Given the stakes and complexity of the claims, major catastrophes invariably spawn years of insurance coverage litigation.

The sheer volume of claims and the intense publicity under which these claims must be resolved make catastrophe claims a tremendous challenge for both policyholder and insurance industry counsel.

Listen as our authoritative panel of insurance practitioners analyzes coverage issues arising from natural and man-made disasters under a range of insurance policies, provides insights from both the insured and insurer perspectives, and offers practical guidance on claim investigation, policy interpretation, and the role of major exclusions, as well as reviews the most recent developments in this rapidly changing area of the law.

1. Overview of catastrophe insurance and risk management
2. Claim handling issues
3. Agent and broker liability
4. The critical role of causation in determining coverage for disaster losses
5. Property insurance coverage issues
   1. Insuring agreement interpretation
   2. Exclusions
   3. Time element coverages
   4. Business interruption claims
   5. Coverage for extra expenses
6. Liability insurance for disasters triggered by human activities
7. Trends and recent developments

The panel will review these and other relevant issues:

• What are the most critical issues and practical considerations when addressing catastrophic claims?
• What are the essential coverage issues in catastrophic claims?
• What are best practices for determining the cause of loss, value of the loss, and interpreting the terms of the policy?
• What legal effects have more frequent and more catastrophic disasters had on insurance coverage?
• How do courts treat exclusions, concurrent causation, and anti-concurrent causation policy provisions?
• How does the language of typical commercial property and liability policies impact coverage for losses from natural and man-made disasters?
• How to minimize the potential for claims of bad faith in handling catastrophe claims