Reed Smith insurance recovery lawyers, Richard Lewis, John Ellison and Jessica Gopiao discuss the complexities of handling insurance claims after natural disasters. This episode covers critical topics such as the nuances of replacement cost insurance, business income coverage, and the impact of wider effects of losses in mass catastrophes. They also discuss the foundational issues in property insurance, the importance of timely communication and documentation, and the role of forensic accountants and brokers in expediting claims. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello, and welcome to Insured Success, a podcast brought to you by Reed Smith's insurance recovery lawyers from around the globe. In this podcast series, we explore trends, issues, and topics of interest affecting commercial policy holders. If you have any questions about the topics discussed in this podcast, please contact our speakers at insuredsuccess@reedsmith.com. We'll be happy to assist.  Jessica: Good morning, afternoon, or whatever time it is for you, and welcome back to Insured Success. My name is Jessica Gopiao. I am a senior associate and member of the Reed Smith's Insurance Recovery Group based in both Miami and Orange County. I am here with Rich Lewis and John Ellison, and we'll let them introduce themselves before we get started.  Richard: Hi, I'm Rich Lewis. I've been handling property and business income cases for about 30 years. Handled them from 9/11, Katrina, Rita, some of the storms in New York, and I've also written a book on business income insurance disputes that I keep updated and been writing it since 2006.  John: Hi, everybody. I'm John Ellison. I'm a senior partner in the Philadelphia and New York offices in the firm's insurance recovery group. Along with Rich and about 80 others of us, we handle first-party property and business income losses around the globe and have been doing it as long and probably with as much success as any other firm. So hopefully some of our experience today will translate well to assist you if you ever are in the unfortunate situation of having to deal with a natural disaster insurance claim.  Richard: All right, so just as a matter of background, we're going to be talking about first party or property insurance, and that generally covers tangible properties such as buildings and equipment and machinery and intangible property being the expectation of profit or additional costs you have to incur to keep in business. There are a number of foundational issues that come up in most property claims. The first is most people buy replacement cost insurance, And that is insurance that gives you new for old. And there is often a delta between what your property is worth when it is destroyed and how much it would cost to replace it. And what a lot of people discover for the first time with a property claim is that under policies, the insurance company only needs to front you what's called the actual cash value. And you have to arrange to get the replacement cost. And sometimes that is difficult. other issues that come up the carrier may want to repair damaged equipment or and you want it replaced in general you know if the way to handle this is to ask the original equipment manufacturer if they will honor any warranties if the equipment is repaired and they generally say they won't and if you're not put in the same position that you had prior to an event that's not the rule the rule is that you should be put in the same position. And that usually means replacement property, not repaired. As for the time element part of property, the general rule in business income is that it's to do what you would have done, but for the event. And that's, So for business income, that's the profit and the unavoidable continuing expenses. Extra expenses are expenses that you incur to keep in business, and there's usually coverage for extra expenses. One thing to note at the outset, and I think we're going to talk about it a little b