Disaster Preparedness and Response Filings

Pursuant to Insurance Law § 308, insurers and related regulated entities must submit disaster planning, preparedness, and response filings in accordance with the standards set forth in Circular Letter No. 10 (2022) to property/casualty insurers and Circular Letter No. 11 (2022) to life, accident and health insurers.

DFS requests that entities submit the foregoing filings electronically through the DFS Portal Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan application (“DFS Portal”). Companies within the same insurance group that write the same type of insurance (Life, Property or Health) may file a single submission of each filing type described below.

Disaster Response Plan and Questionnaire

An entity should complete the online Disaster Response Plan Questionnaire that summarizes the contents of its disaster response plan and upload its disaster response plan, the plan approval, and signed affirmation to the DFS Portal.

The plan approval is a document that demonstrates that the relevant board of directors, or appropriate committee thereof or, if there is no board of directors, the governing body, approved the disaster response plan.

The affirmation should be signed by an officer or other executive of the entity who has responsibility for oversight of the submission and can affirm that the information set forth in the submission is true under penalty of perjury. There is no standardized template for the affirmation. An entity should create its own affirmation in accordance with the guidance set forth in the relevant Circular Letter.

The questionnaire requires that any affirmative responses also identify the location of the information in the corresponding plan. Negative responses are considered deficiencies of the plan that will require a revised submission within 30 days. A response of “N/A” will require an explanation by the entity. DFS will advise if the explanation is unacceptable or requires further clarification.

The questionnaire can be completed in multiple portal sessions by resuming a partially completed filing. Updates and recertifications can be made by modifying only the information that has changed since the last submission. The submitter will be able to retrieve previously submitted questionnaire responses. However, each new submission or update to a previous submission will supersede the last submission made for a company. DFS review will be based on the most recent submission. The submitter will receive an automated email receipt upon submission.

Sample Questionnaires

The following sample questionnaires are provided to assist in preparing and gathering the necessary information for a single submitter to complete the online form.

Re-Certifying a Disaster Response Plan

The DFS Portal begins by collecting entity characteristics (e.g., claims processing addresses, Schedule T data, gross premiums) and contact information.  An entity must re-certify each year on the DFS Portal by updating the entity characteristics and contact information, updating the responses to the questionnaire, and uploading the most recent disaster response plan, signed affirmation, and disaster response plan approval.  If a disaster response plan remains unchanged from the previous year, it does not need to be uploaded again.  Rather, the submitter may note as a comment in the “Additional Information” tab that the previously filed disaster response plan is still in effect and upload the signed affirmation stating that the information set forth in the submission is true.

The disaster response plan approval date must be within one year of certification in the DFS Portal.  If a board, committee, or governing body meeting is scheduled for a date after the certification deadline, an entity should update the plan approval date and document the approval in the DFS Portal as soon as practicable.

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Questionnaire

An entity should download and complete the BCP Questionnaire, and then upload it to the DFS Portal. Do not submit your business continuity plan here; only the Questionnaire is required.

Pre-Disaster Survey (PDS) (Property/Casualty Entities Only)

An entity should download and complete the PDS Workbook using the previous calendar year’s data, and then upload it in the DFS Portal.

If you are reporting for a single company or for a group of companies and wish to submit data on a group basis, you will need to complete only one pre-disaster survey file. If multiple entities are included in one file, the sum of all entities’ figures should be entered on the form.

If you are reporting for a group of companies and wish to submit separate data for each company, please make as many separate files as necessary to report on all the entities in your reporting group.

The Comm Report and Pers Report worksheets each require the following data for all of the respective coverages for each county:

  • Amount of Insurance In-Force (dollar value of Gross Exposure, NOT Premiums)
  • Number of Policies In-Force in each County in New York State.

Commercial Report Lines:

01 - Fire
02.1 - Allied Lines
02.2 - Multiple Peril Crop
02.3 - Federal Flood
03 - Farmowners Multiple Peril
05.1 - Commercial Multiple Peril (Non-Liability Portion)
12 - Earthquake

Personal Report Lines:

01 - Fire
02.1 - Allied Lines
02.3 - Federal Flood
03 - Farmowners Multiple Peril
04 - Homeowners Multiple Peril
12 - Earthquake

The Comm Auto and Pers Auto worksheets each require the following data for the below-listed coverage for each county:

  • Number of Vehicles Covered by Comprehensive Insurance
  • Number of Policies In-Force

Commercial Auto Line:

21.2 - Commercial Auto Physical Damage

Personal Auto Line:

21.1 - Private Passenger Auto Physical Damage

DFS Portal

To access the DFS Portal, you must have a portal account. To get started, select the DFS Portal button below to log into, or create a portal account.

Note: A portal session will time out if there is no activity for 30 minutes. Data entered into the DFS Portal that has not been saved will be lost.

Browsers and Blockers

  • Use a supported browser: The latest version plus one previous of Firefox, Chrome and Safari, are supported.
  • Disable any “Pop-up Blocker” setting in your browser before using portal applications.
  • Maintenance: This application may be unavailable daily from 7:30 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. for scheduled maintenance.
  • Applications may not be compatible with cell phones, tablets or other mobile devices.

Request Access to the Disaster Preparedness and Response Application

Sign in with your Portal User ID/email address and follow the steps below:

  • Select Ask for Apps.
  • Select the Disaster Preparedness and Response Application.
  • Enter either the Company Name(s) or NAIC Number(s). You may enter multiple Company Name(s) or NAIC Number(s) in one request.
  • A menu will appear containing the Company Name(s) that you entered; click on the desired Company Name(s), then click Submit.
  • You will receive a message stating that the request has been received and an email notification when the request is approved.
  • Once access has been granted, you will see a link to the Disaster Preparedness and Response Application in the area called My Apps.
  • You will be able to select your Company(ies) from a menu that includes all the Company(ies) within the same Group.

Trusted Source

In order to manage the users authorized to file on behalf on an entity, each entity must identify an individual to serve as a local security administrator called a "Trusted Source."

A Trusted Source has the right to approve new submitters and reviewers for their entity without active DFS intervention.

Each entity must designate one trusted source, plus one backup, to manage access approvals to this application for the entity. A trusted source will be assigned this role when DFS approves their “Ask for Apps” request. Users should identify if they will be the designed trusted source for their entities in the “Request Comment” field.

Questions?

Questions regarding submission of a pre-disaster survey, disaster response plan, response to the disaster response plan questionnaire, or response to the BCP questionnaire can be sent to [email protected].