New template unveiled for business interuption declarations

Biba has today launched a standard business interruption declaration template to help across the market with under-insurance.

The move follows a series of surveys indicating industry issues with assessing correct levels of cover for business interruption insurance.

One of these conducted by the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters found that one of the biggest issues causing BI under-insurance was around the failure to include wages in the gross profit calculation and the lack of annual declarations.

Malcolm Hyde, executive director at CILA said: “Declaration policies provide the opportunity to get this right. An appropriately worded calculation declaration could go a long way to avoiding this under-insurance.”

Biba’s declaration template, launched in conjunction with its Property Committee and Insurance Brokers’ Standards Committee, sets out clearly, with guidance notes, which figures need to be declared, in relation to what period and how these feed into the BI sum insured.

Biba executive director Graeme Trudgill said: “It is vitally important that businesses have the right level of cover in place on their BI insurance to enable them to get back to the trading position they enjoyed before a claim. 

“Ensuring that clients submit declarations and that the figures used in the calculation of the sum insured are accurate is of great value in setting the right level of cover. 

“Promoting the use of a standard form of declaration that needs to be submitted each year will definitely help negate this issue.”

The BI declaration template is available to Biba members online at www.biba.org.uk

BIBA technical services manager Martin Bridges concluded: “We engaged with insurers and brokers to create the template and this collaboration will aid customers and help brokers to maintain excellent professional standards.”