| SME – Covid-19
Covid-19 has been one of the most far reaching and disruptive events for our society and economy in modern history and we’ve seen a huge response from our SME customers to keep their businesses running and their people safe in the face of this unprecedented challenge. This has included customers adapting by diversifying their businesses, temporarily closing premises, enabling their teams to work from home and in some cases suspending operations and putting their teams on furlough. Allianz’s approach At Allianz we too have been affected, moving 100% of our SME team to home working. We’re proud to be back at our regular service levels within just 3 weeks and we thank you for your support during this period of transition. Our telephony lines, live chat and online facilities are all up and running and open for business as normal. Policy coverage Recognising our customers’ changing needs, we’ve taken steps to ensure they are supported as they meet this challenge. Measures we’ve taken include the automatic extension of cover for working from home, a temporary extension of full cover where a premises becomes unoccupied and a commitment to be flexible with our underwriting appetite where a change to business activity is humanitarian in nature or to protect employment. Full details with latest updates are available online. We’ve also created the Coronavirus resource hub with FAQs and useful information to support customers in managing their businesses through this crisis. Working with our brokers To operate most effectively through this period we rely on the continued support of our broker partners to consistently and accurately present their customers’ insurance needs. Where a business has made material changes to their operation as a result of Covid-19, we request to be notified as soon as is practical so we can adequately assess and price for the risk. – New Business We ask that significant adjustments to a business operation are declared to us on Day 1 as part of the fair presentation of a risk, even where the question set does not ask a specific question. This will include:
Please be assured that we’ll take a flexible approach when assessing the exposures presented if businesses have changed from their normal operation. – Existing Business We ask to be notified of significant adjustments to a business operation as soon as practically possible and we’ll be flexible in our assessment of these material changes. We’ve relaxed a number of conditions for our renewal customers, including an extension of our unoccupied buildings wording so that buildings temporarily unoccupied as a result of Covid-19 need not be notified to us yet. Full and latest details of these changes are updated online. Getting in touch Our phone lines are fully open and our underwriters can be contacted through all of our usual channels and are here to help. The quickest and easiest way to transact with us remains electronically through QuoteSME or iMarket, bearing in mind that where a risk has changed materially you may need to contact an underwriter to notify this. In the meantime I wish you and your families and teams well during these difficult times. Kind regards, Helen Bryant |