CFSIC reassures older clients after influx of new claimants
The Connecticut Foundations Solutions Indemnity Company (CFSIC) has assured existing claimants they will not be pushed down the pecking order after an influx of new claimants came into the captive in January.
CFSIC, the captive set up to assist Connecticut homeowners affected with crumbling foundations that were not covered by their traditional insurance policies, reopened its doors for applications with a new “pending” claim status on January 13. Since then it has received 179 new applications from the 40 affected towns in the Northeast Corner of Connecticut.
Coincidentally, the captive also had 179 claimants with severity class two foundations on its books as of February 3, with 174 of those claimants active. On that date the CFSIC held financial reserves of $22.27 million to cover its claims.
Many of these class two claimants have been waiting for a number of years for access to CFSIC funds, and CFSIC was apologetic that the process has been so slow.
“We know that severity class two claimants want and need answers about when we can get to them, how long it’s going to take, and whether we will have the money to fund their claims,” CFSIC said in a statement.
“As claims become active, they move up in priority with respect to access to available claim adjustment funds, but always in the order of severity: class three, followed by class two, followed by class one,” the captive explained. “Due to this prioritisation system, active severity class three claim contractor proposal review has always taken precedence over the review of active severity class two foundation replacement contractor proposals.”
However, CFSIC assured clients that have been waiting since before January 13: “We made a promise that even if a new pending claim was verifiably a severity class three, we would never put a severity class three pending claimant in front of an active severity class two claimant who was active and in line prior to January 13. We’re going to hold to that promise.”
CFSIC said it now has a handful of severity class two claimants that have been placed in line for participation agreements, though it admitted those agreements would not be finalised until after July 1. “We are rationing our current funding to conserve our cash, and the Superintendent is going to suspend the signing of participation agreements after the week of February 10 on a temporary basis,” it said.
CFSIC said it is working on a set of revised infographics using data up to the end of January to keep its claimants better informed.
