Have a plan to access additional staff resources should current staff not be available.

Conduct an annual network assessment of your disaster and security plan. Update as needed.

Maintain valuable papers and agency records off-site in a secure facility.

Include specific triggers in your plan that will set it into motion as foreseeable disasters approach.

Required Information During Evacuation

Employee telephone tree with emergency contact information.

Carrier contact information. Carrier passwords (take security precautions with respect to this information).

Phone company and other agency vendor contact information.

Contacts for emergency assistance and services.

Complete customer list, with emergency contact information, location addresses, policies, carriers, limits, deductibles, and lienholders.

Address and phone files and copies of the disaster plan.

Expiration list of policies to be processed for next six months. Activity lists of things coming up for the next two months.

Equipment inventories and valuable agency papers.

When Disaster Is Imminent

Overnight a tape of the latest database to the agency management system's data center.

Consider email and automatic call outs to customers with emergency contact information.

Instruct staff to complete processing of all work that is outstanding, especially as it relates to coverage relating to the disaster.

Make sure all needed lists are up-to-date in paper form, as well as exported to a laptop and portable storage device. Tight security is imperative on each of these items.

Make sure all employees know their assignments and have made clear how they can be reached in emergency.

If possible, load your agency management system application onto a laptop along with your “latest and greatest” data file for instant access. Take all security precautions to protect your data.

If you utilize an on-line data backup service, upload to them if possible.

Wrap and label all employee work to be done to protect it.

Take reasonable steps to protect all equipment.

Redirect your phone numbers before the disaster.

Disconnect all electrical equipment from the wall.

If destruction of file server is imminent, consider taking the server with you if you know how to disconnect it and handle it safely.

Shut off water and gas lines.

Have needed provisions on hand, including enough cash for a few weeks.

Generators

Consider having a permanent generator large enough to supply continuous power to entire facility, wired for automatic cross-over, located in as safe a place as possible.

Fit each server and work station with a proper Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS).

Never plug computer equipment directly into a generator.

Test the generator under an electrical load to make sure it is producing electricity.

Contract with vendor to provide ongoing maintenance and testing and to deliver fuel in emergencies.

Provisions

Fans, extension cords, batteries, flashlights, battery-powered lamps and radios, and low heat, low-energy lighting available to use with your generator.

Sufficient bottled water to handle employees' and customers' needs for two weeks.

Canned or dry food goods that do not require refrigeration or cooking, as well as beverages and snacks for employees and customers.

Can openers, paper/plastic utensils, plates and cups, trash bags, bleach, paper towels and cleaning supplies, and hand wipes.

First-aid supplies and blankets.

Paper ACORD claims forms, carbon paper, and other office supplies, as well as digital cameras.

Matches, barbeque grill, fuel for grill.

Let Technology Help

Move from paper to electronic files wherever possible. Implement download for commercial lines as well as personal lines. The management system is the go-to place for client information.

Portability provides a great advantage so you can reach your agency management system and e-mail anywhere and any time.

Have a substantial agency website with needed agency and carrier contact information. This is where customers will look first after a disaster. Have your website hosted off- site in area that will not be affected by the disaster.

Claims download will start to become available in the next year. Implement it as soon as possible and encourage your vendor and carriers to offer it promptly.

Customer claims inquiry on the carrier web site is an important tool in handling the surge following a disaster. The industry needs to work to extend this functionality out to the agency web site, as well. Agents should implement real-time claims inquiry from their agency management systems wherever possible to cut the time to handle these inquiries to under a minute.

Give customers and agents the capability to file claims online. This can be more efficient than filing the claims by phone when phone service is intermittent and unreliable.

Implement real-time claims inquiry, real-time rating, and the other real-time capabilities available to you so that you can service customers in as little time as possible and continue to write new business in the aftermath of a disaster.

TPAs Can Help

Consider 24/7 remote telephone service to handle customer inquiries and claims if the agency's communications are down. These services possess a mirror of the agency's database.

Engage a firm to provide emergency equipment and facility replacement.

Plan to remotely host your agency management system.

Consider remote service for back up of your data, in addition to your tape back ups.

Have your agency's web site hosted in a secure facility in an area away from your main office or branches.

Host your e-mail off-site or have a back up Internet agency e-mail account.

Consider having a technology firm provide emergency services, help desk, on-site assistance and equipment when needed.

Formulate vendor relationships in advance, and understand your vendors' disaster plans.

Pre-arrange to have a temporary office at a branch or agency.

Make provisions for emergency housing following a disaster.

Have maintenance contract for a generator, including refueling in the aftermath of disasters.

Computers

Have multiple ways to reach the Internet.

Take advantage of wireless and portability. Have laptops with broadband mobile access cards and wireless Internet.

Have smart phones and PDAs with cellular broadband access that can act as a high-speed modem.

Seriously evaluate ASP option for agency management system. Ask how they can help if you don't have Internet connection.

Have procedures for properly turning on and off critical equipment, including the UPS battery backup units. Test these procedures periodically.

Investigate portable satellite dishes for Internet access.

Backing Up Data Is Critical

Create daily back ups, and have two trusted, authorized employees alternate taking the daily tapes to two different locations. Maintain monthly and annual tapes.

Perform test restore at least monthly to test the integrity of the tape and the integrity of the data.

Invest in secondary form of data archiving to provide redundancy (tape, remote, external hard drive).

Seriously consider using on-line remote service as primary back up method, coupled with tapes.

Be prepared to overnight a tape of the latest database to agency management system's data center if a disaster is imminent.

Keep a copy of back-up software, with its key code, off-site in a secure place.

Manage the security risks presented when taking each of these steps.

Employee Communications

Set up an employee phone tree, including emergency contact information for each employee.

Establish an emergency call-in number, e-mail and text messaging for employees.

Customer Communications

Maintain customer emergency contact information.

Give customers emergency contact information for your agency.

Train customers to go to the agency website for emergency contact information for agency personnel, their carriers, and other services.

Consider a letter to customers at the start of hurricane season detailing their carriers, coverages, and emergency contact information for the agency and their carriers.

Consider an ad campaign to encourage consumer preparedness for disasters, with information located on your agency web site.

Consider using e-mail and automatic call outs providing customer information when a storm is imminent.

Reach out to customers in the aftermath of a disaster with website, signage, newspapers, radio, and TV. Prepare messages in advance.

Telephones

Switch over phone lines at the phone company to emergency service before disaster, which may sometimes be done online.

Have access to multiple cell phone services, satellite phones, and text messaging.

Implement Voice-Over Internet for back up communications capability.

Have an alternative phone line that bypasses the telephone switch in your office. You can use this if you lose power.

Special Needs

Be aware there will be significant emotional and psychological effects after major events.

Provide drinks and food.

Have a volunteer or staff member manage the client process, create waiting lists, and direct claims process traffic.

Caucus each day to adjust response as necessary.

Carrier Issues

Understand in advance each of your carrier's CAT plans, the local presence they will have, and how they will permit you to make multiple claims efficiently.

Understand how your MGAs, E&S brokers, and their carriers will handle claims.

Seek draft authority or methods to provide customers with emergency funds immediately.

Seek the ability to file claims online, since other types of communication may be intermittent or nonexistent.

E&O Considerations

Document in writing prior to the anniversary date if you are unable to replace coverage.

Advise customers of significant reductions in coverage when you replace coverage with a new carrier or write/renew the coverage with a surplus lines carrier and secure customer's written acknowledgement of the reduction in coverage. Where an admitted carrier renews the policy, state laws usually put the obligation on the carrier to notify the customer of reductions in coverage (not so with a non-admitted carrier).

Be especially careful to follow all of the laws with surplus lines placements, point out coverage reductions or coverage gaps to customers, along with the fact that surplus lines carriers are not typically covered by the guaranty fund. Get binders, certificates or other evidence of insurance from the surplus lines broker because the retail agent does not have binding authority for this business.

Advise the customer in writing of any changes in the carrier's A.M. Best rating during the policy term.

Request a signed rejection form from customers who refuse available coverage for flood insurance (and/or earthquake insurance in appropriate areas). Clearly communicate to customers the exposed limits on their risks.

Create a well-documented file.