While insurers deal with the pending impact of H1N1, insurance agencies should also prepare for the impact of a possible pandemic event, according to the Insurance Agents & Brokers Service Group.

The IA&B, which represents agents in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania, recently unveiled its “Emergency and Business Continuity Planning Manual,” an online module that lets agencies prepare, respond and recover from an emergency event.

Kathleen Glattly

Kathleen Glattly, the IA&B’s chairwoman, told IFAwebnews.com that the onset of the H1N1 virus, “certainly contributed to the urgency of releasing this resource to our members.”

The manual walks agency owners through exercises such as cataloging their business contacts, outlining operational needs, prioritizing their critical functions and completing risk analyses.

So far, more than 130 agencies have accessed the manual while the IA&B collects information from members as to their level of concern regarding pandemic risks.

“All independent agents should be thinking about the possible impact a pandemic could have on agency operations,” she said. “Agents should imagine how the normal business operations of their agency could be affected if a significant portion of their staff were absent either due to illness or the need to care for an ill family member.”

She added that if schools and daycarecenters close, employees with children may have unplanned childcare issues which could lead to absenteeism.

The manual helps agents in preparing for these circumstances, she said, in a Web-based, free-of-charge platform that can be accessed at a moment’s notice.

“This resource was tested by member agents who recovered their agencies from emergencies and disasters,” Glattly said.

Members told the organization that the biggest part of recovery was trying to remember information critical to restoring their operations, according to Glattly.

“IA&B’s manual helps agents catalogue this information and its unique, web-based design allows them to access and update it at any time,” she said.

This story originally appeared in the October 2009 print edition of Insurance & Financial Advisor.