Triple-I: Louisiana’s Insurance Crisis Grew After 2020-21 Hurricanes

For immediate release
Michael Barry, 917-923-8245, michaelb@iii.org

NEW YORK, March 28, 2023—Louisiana’s insurers paid out more than $23 billion after the 2020 and 2021 hurricane seasons, driving a number of them into insolvency, according to an Issues Brief released today by the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I).

“Twelve insurers that write homeowners coverage in Louisiana were declared insolvent between July 2021 and February 2023,” Trends and Insights: Louisiana’s Insurance Crisis states, in large part due to the severity of the insured loss payouts in the wake of 2020’s Hurricane Laura and 2021’s Hurricane Ida.  The Laura losses across all insurance lines stood at $9.1 billion in Louisiana a year after it made landfall whereas Ida prompted Louisiana’s insurers either to pay, or to set aside, another $13.9 billion in the aftermath of that storm. 

Hurricanes Delta and Zeta, both of which made landfall in Louisiana in October 2020, cumulatively generated another $1.5 billion in insured auto, home, and business insurance claim payouts, according to the Louisiana Department of Insurance (LDI).

“While Louisiana’s troubles owe more than Florida’s to hurricane-related losses, the state is no stranger to legal system abuse,” the Triple-I Issues Brief continues.  “A regular on the American Tort Reform Foundation’s Judicial Hellholes list, the state’s “onerous bad faith laws contribute significantly to inflated claim payments and awards,” according to a joint paper published last summer by several insurance industry trade groups.

To increase the availability and to broaden the affordability of homeowners insurance coverage, Louisiana’s lawmakers revived this year the Insure Louisiana Incentive Program.  The state authorized $45 million in matching grants for disbursement under the Program. It incentivizes new and existing Louisiana insurers to write residential and commercial insurance policies in coastal areas.  One of the Program’s other public policy goals is to reduce the number of policyholders in Louisiana’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-run property insurer of last resort.

Complicating matters further for its policyholders, Louisiana is by far the least affordable state in the U.S. for personal auto insurance, according to a 2022 study released by the Insurance Research Council (IRC).  The IRC, like Triple-I, is an affiliate of The Institutes.

RELATED LINKS

Triple-I Blog: Hurricanes Drive Louisiana Insured Losses, Insurer Insolvencies (August 2022)