The property/casualty insurance advisory organization AAIS has unveiled its first standardized personal auto insurance program for use by insurers that it says is the first new auto program available to the industry in decades.

The American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS) will  soon begin filing policy forms for the AAIS Personal Auto Program, which is designed for carriers insuring standard and preferred classes of drivers, Edmund J. Kelly, president and CEO, announced at the group’s annual conference.

While AAIS provides policy forms, manual rules, rating information and automation support for 34 programs of personal, commercial, agricultural and inland marine insurance, it has never created a personal auto program for carriers until now.

More than 700 property/casualty insurers use one or more AAIS programs.

“This program has been long-sought by many of our members,” said Kelly, who noted it will allow its members to have a full suite of AAIS-based personal lines products.

The initiative includes a newly crafted multi-state base form, plus all mandatory endorsements and more than 60 optional endorsements, which the group says is a defining feature of the program.

“We have a state-of-the-art base form that was reviewed by independent coverage analysts and some of our members,” said John Kadous, AAIS vice president of personal lines. “The program’s most distinctive feature, however, is the flexibility provided through its many optional endorsements.”

The program’s optional endorsements provide flexibility to address several categories of coverage, including:

  • Policy conditions, such as accident forgiveness, combined single limit, named driver exclusion,
  • Losses to components and personal property, such as custom and audio/video/data equipment, plus first-party coverage for injury to a pet;
  • Ownership arrangements, such as lessors, trusts, and joint owners;
  • Car-sharing and ride-sharing, including transportation network activity;
  • Coverage for non-owned autos;
  • Coverage for non-autos, such as farm motor vehicles, low-speed vehicles, snowmobiles, and miscellaneous vehicles;
  • Coverage related to traveling, such as emergency roadside service, trip interruption, limited coverage in Mexico; and
  • Coverage for physical damage, including new vehicle replacement coverage, coverage for damage to a rental vehicle, and more.