In a recent Issues Brief, the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) reported that after the hurricane seasons of 2020 and 2021, Louisiana’s insurers paid out more than $23 billion, forcing some of them into insolvency.
According to Triple-I, twelve insurers who write home coverage in Louisiana were declared insolvent between July 2021 and February 2023, largely as a result of the size of the insured loss payouts following Hurricanes Laura in 2020 and Ida in 2021.
One year after Laura made landfall, Louisiana’s insurance companies reported total losses of $9.1 billion across all insurance lines, while Ida’s aftermath forced them to either pay out or set aside an additional $13.9 billion.
A further $1.5 billion in insured claims for vehicle, house, and business insurance were created by storms Zeta and Delta, which made landfall in Louisiana in October 2020, according to the Louisiana Department of Insurance (LDI).
Louisiana’s legislators also brought back this year’s Insure Louisiana Incentive Program in an effort to extend the affordability and availability of homeowner insurance coverage.
In order to fund the initiative, the state approved matching grants totaling $45 million.
The initiative encourages Louisiana insurers, both new and established, to issue business and residential insurance policies in coastal regions. Reducing the number of policyholders in Louisiana’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-run property insurer of last resort, is another policy objective of the program.
According to a 2022 report published by the Insurance Research Council, Louisiana’s policyholders’ situation is made even more difficult by the fact that it is by far the least expensive state in the nation for personal auto insurance (IRC). Similar to Triple-I, The IRC is a member of The Institutes.
