This is almost laughable, it is so obvious: "Business income can be confusing, to say the least." One of the FC&S expert analysts wrote this in August's FC&S Dec Page, which lets its users know what has recently been updated, added to, or commented on in the service. I almost cut the line from the text when I read it; simply saying it seems redundant.

I did not, however, because business income insurance is confusing in almost all of its aspects, from setting values pre-loss for the risk manager to sorting it all out after the loss for insureds, CFOs, brokers, accountants, lawyers, and everyone up and down the line.

In terms of coverage issues, BI is a hot topic. Almost automatically, BI used to mean bodily injury liability in the insurance pro's mind; now it means business income or interruption. In terms of press, BI is becoming dominant. Several requests for FC&S analyses have been published as FC&S Q&As, staff writer/analyst Susan Massmann covered some basic issues in an FC&S Onlines column in The National Underwriter property and casualty edition in August, and National Underwriter's Professional Publishing Division has just brought out a new book on the topic, The Business Interruption Book: Coverage Claims and Recovery. Worth my recommending to you (even if I were not employed by the publisher), this look at BI issues is written by partners from Ernst & Young's insurance practice group, Daniel T. Torpey and Daniel Lentz, and David A. Barrett of the law firm Latham and Watkins, based in Washington D.C.