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Disaster Preparedness and Response

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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. 3 (2025) to property/casualty insurers and Circular Letter No. 4 (2025) to life, accident and health insurers.

Entities should submit filings online via the Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan application on the 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 re-certifications 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

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 and DFS ID

Those conducting business on behalf of a regulated entity must use DFS ID to access the DFS Portal.

Users must receive an invitation to DFS ID from their Entity Administrator. You will use DFS ID credentials and multi-factor authentication (MFA) to log in, so be sure to have or download an authenticator app (e.g., Google or Microsoft Authenticator) to an available mobile device before getting started.

To get started, use the DFS Portal button below and sign in using your DFS ID credentials:

Once you access the DFS Portal, use the "Request Apps" tab to request access to 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.

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.

Questions?

Contact your Entity Administrator with questions regarding access to DFS ID. 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].