Work First Casualty Company (“Work First”) is issuing this guidance to its insureds in the State of New Jersey in response to Bulletin No. 20-15 (the “Bulletin”) issued by Marlene Caride, Insurance Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance (the “Department”), on April 10, 2020.  Pursuant to the Bulletin, the Department is directing all licensed property and casualty insurers to extend a 90-day grace period to pay insurance premiums to their insureds who may be experiencing a financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Since the outbreak of COVID-19, businesses in the State of New Jersey have been negatively impacted in a variety of ways, and many industries have seen their revenue significantly decline.  This can, in turn, affect the ability of these businesses to timely pay for their insurance obligations when due.

Work First hereby informs its insureds in the State of New Jersey who are experiencing financial hardship related to COVID-19 that we will honor the 90-day grace period for payment of insurance premiums.  An insured can elect this grace period to start on either April 1, 2020 (retroactively) or May 1, 2020.During this grace period, Work First will not cancel any insurance policy for non-payment, and will not charge interest or any penalty fees for non-payment.  This guidance notice is not intended to change the terms of an issued policy or be considered as forgiveness of the premium.

In addition, Work First will follow the Bulletin’s guidance which requires that we:

• Waive late payment fees otherwise due, and not report late payments to credit rating agencies, during the 90-day period;
• Allow premiums due but not paid during the 90-day period to be paid over the remainder of the current policy term or up to 12 months in up to 12 equal installments, whichever is longer, and
• Ensure that late payments during the 90-day period are not considered in any future premium calculations at any time.

This guidance document is dated April 15, 2020 and Work First will update this guidance document should the Department change or extend any of the terms outlined in the Bulletin.  Please contact Work First with any questions on this guidance document.