Wheaton, Ill., March 20, 2009—The American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS) has initiated a countrywide filing of new endorsements and a revised manual under the AAIS Businessowners Program. The proposed effective date for the first states being filed is Sept. 1, 2009.

AAIS is a national insurance advisory organization that develops standardized policy forms and rating information used by more than 600 property/casualty insurers throughout the U.S. AAIS maintains programs in 24 lines of personal, commercial, farm, and inland marine insurance.

Among the new AAIS Businessowners endorsements:

• One would implement functional replacement cost valuation for building property, and another would implement such valuation for business personal property;

• One could be used to implement percentage deductibles of 1%, 2%, or 5% for windstorm or hail losses, subject to a $1,000 minimum deductible; and

• One would allow coverage for property damage liability to apply to scheduled premises rented or occupied by the named insured with the owner's permission.

The newly revised program manual features a format consisting of countrywide rules, classifications, and rating information, plus state pages with territorial definitions, state-specific rating information, and state-specific exceptions to countrywide materials.

The revised manual will give affiliates a choice between using pre-calculated loss costs or factor rating information to determine the basic policy premium for buildings and business personal property.

The factor rating information consists of base loss costs and relativity factors that pertain to construction, protection, territory, rate group, and liability limits. Upon approval of each state filing, the base loss costs and relativity factors will be posted to the AAISdirect online service as data sets that can be readily downloaded to automated policy rating systems.