She advised the group that being ready for business interruption meant they should be ready with detailed information, hire experts when needed and have a solid contingency plan in place.

Ms. Needleman said in the past eight years her firm has had two major business interruption losses: the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the World Trade Center disaster of Sept. 11.

The losses were similar in some respects?in that they both involved all employees in the World Trade Center, about 3,500 people, and 1.5 million square-feet of office space, she said. Property damage losses in the 1993 claim involved electronic equipment cleanup and painting of premises.

The business interruption claim in 1993, she said, was mitigated by the company's contingency plan.

Although "the best BI claim is the one that doesn't happen," she said that business continuity planning should be a big part of business interrupt discussion. Because the company had a facility on Varick St., they were able to work over the weekend, "and by Monday morning we were ready to trade."

The 2001 event on Sept. 11 involved the same 1.5 million square feet of space and the same number of employees, "but in 2001 we had total destruction of the office space," she said. "To complicate the claim, some of the documentation needed to make the claim was lost."

Currently, she said, the company's business interruption claim is still in the analysis stage "so we don't know the extent of it. But again, we mitigated our loss because of our business continuity planning."

Ms. Needleman recommended that risk managers make an effort to communicate with their organization prior to any loss.

Meet with accounting groups and the controller, and "see who will be working with you on the claim," she said. Also, she advised meeting with senior management to manage their expectations about potential difficulties, which may be encountered with the business interruption process.

"It's important to communicate that this will be a long process," she said. "It can take months or years to settle a claim of the magnitude of Sept. 11."