James Richardson - IUL Insurance and Bonds

Flood Insurance - Risk Rating 2.0 for residential and commercial property - This started last year, but people are just coming to the reality it is happening. The 18% the first year or two is manageable, but each year the goes by that becomes a much larger number. Where it is really hitting home now is that purchases of new homes are hit with the full premium and some of them are deal killers.

Some homeowners seeing insurance spike up to $15K, an agent says People buying new homes are forced to pay the new 2.0 flood rate without any gradual scale so that’s another deterrent for new home buyers," Burghardt said.

This will be a difficult sell to the Louisiana consumer, but hopefully Temple will be a great communicator and explain the "why".
Without competition the LA property insurance market will stay in this state of perpetual increase. So, the consumer must put themselves in the shoes of the insurance carrier and think in terms of why they do not do business here.

Temple will float policies that are all pro-insurance industry and will be attacked by PACs funded by litigators. But that is the only realistic way to begin the process of luring strong carriers to the market, creating competition. The LA consumer most also come to grips with the reality that a good outcome may be competition driving a decrease in the rate of premium increase in the near term (it is a worldwide hard market - not just in LA - it will eventually turn, but no one knows when).

If you ran an insurance carrier and a hurricane prone and very litigious state had these rules in place (that most other coastal states did not) would you do business there:
1. Once you are with a carrier for 3 years, they cannot drop you unless there are multiple claims or they leave the state all together. LA is the only state with this law. Insurance companies are in business to mitigate risks. Being stuck on a large percentage of market share in LA with major fluctuations in reinsurance (insurance for insurance companies) and a state regulator who determines your premium increases is not good risk management.
2. Department of Insurance approval of rate increases and caps on profits. That sounds good for the consumer, and it is if you have a robust and profitable market. The LA market is neither. Again, we are pushing for competition. If the majority of states allow for carrier increases and profitability you are not going to be motivated to fight with the LA bureaucracy to make a profit when you can allocate your property insurance capital in other states without that problem.
3. Litigation reform - the devil is in the details with this one. This is where I sometimes part ways with the industry. I am all for incentivizing carriers to do business here, but the trade-off is for the LA consumer to have the right to their day in court if a carrier is not fulfilling their requirements. And to have damages sting enough that it benefits carriers to settle claims quickly and justly. With that said we need to have similar guidelines and penalties as other states in our region so that it does not become a reason to pass on our market.

Sorry - it is NOLA.com - I read it before they put the paywall up. Multiple free outlets have similar articles.

Debate over Louisiana property crisis takes shape. These ideas are on the table. Divides over Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple’s ambitious plan to tilt Louisiana’s property insurance market in favor of insurance companies began to emerge Tuesday, as industry executives hailed it as a

Welcome to the softening property market.
1 - 2023 less property losses worldwide (not sure if this means we solved climate change)
2 - 2023 premium investment returns up.
3 - insurer underwriting profits, not losses
All this = capacity as capital is deployed in the reinsurance market = more competition in the market = better rates by the end of 2024.

Reinsurance Buyers Find 'Smoother' January Renewals With Ample Capacity: Carpenter Ceding companies are finding that a responsive reinsurance market has materialized for the Jan. 1, 2024 renewals – a reflection of ample capacity and a

Good news for LA -
We received the residential rate changes for Citizens for 2024. Total for the state is only up 3.5%.
St. Tammany Homeowners is down 4% and wind and hail monoline is up 4%.
We will have to see when commercial property comes out later in the month.
But what this tells you is that rates have plateaued. Citizens is required to be higher than the top five options in the private market. This means that the private market was almost flat (4% as a historical average is normal premium inflation) for their approved rates.
As we have said - Ida is tracking much like Katrina in SELA. Two 50% increases, then a plateau, then competition sees that they are leaving profits on the table and enter the market reducing rate - assuming we get the decade of manageable hurricane seasons we had post Katrina.

One frustration people have with the state of the property insurance market is not know if they are getting a "good deal", a "fair deal", or if they are getting a "bad deal". This article shows a different way to evaluate if you are above or below average in your homeowners premium spend compared to others.
They use ratio of average homeowner's insurance expenditures to median household income. The US average is around 2%, meaning the average US household spends 2% of their income on homeowners insurance. So if the household brings in $100,000 they would pay $2000 for homeowners.
The article says Utah is the best at .92%.
Of course, Louisiana is the worst at 3.84%.
So an average LA resident (this is a bit skewed b/c North LA brings it down a bit) will spend $3840 per $100,000 of income.
My assumption would be, if you did this for the NOLA metro that number would be more in the 4.5-5% range.

Why is homeowners insurance becoming less affordable? New research point to pressures driving up home insurance rates

Finally getting some relief in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany. Centauri is opening for some homes as well. Now let's see if the premiums are better than Citizens, unlike the ICAT false alarm.

The new health insurance standoff - Ozempic.

Insurance issues making popular obesity help hard to get "This is not for the weak-willed"

Property and Flood insurance hikes are getting all the press, but auto insurance is sn*******ng in LA and many other states. Now it is not just the litigious nature of LA, it is a macro national problem. In the last 12 months most independent agents in LA have gone from 5-6 realistic personal auto markets and 2-4 commercial auto options to 1 or 2. The ones that are still writing are taking huge increases. And it is only getting worse. If LA loses one more carrier it will be a full scale crisis.

Car insurance rates just had their biggest annual jump in 47 years. This is why | CNN Business Across the United States, the cost of car insurance is up 19% compared to a year ago, according to August’s Consumer Price Index report released on Wednesday. That’s the biggest annual increase since 1976.

First round of the fortified roof grant program will kick off 10/2. Frist come first served. Up to $10K to get a new fortified roof.

Fortify Homes Introducing the Louisiana Fortify Homes Program. It grants up to $10,000 for homeowners to upgrade their roofs to standards set by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. The program will help Louisiana homeowners strengthen their roofs to better withstand hurricane-force winds.

Louisiana fortified roof grant program.
Upgrade your roof with help from the state. As new carriers come online in your parish they SHOULD discount your policy, or at the least open you up to underwriting approval that you would not have received otherwise.

Fortify Homes Introducing the Louisiana Fortify Homes Program. It grants up to $10,000 for homeowners to upgrade their roofs to standards set by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. The program will help Louisiana homeowners strengthen their roofs to better withstand hurricane-force winds.

The SURE BOP product, which is one of the only carriers writing BOPs in south Louisiana (with wind coverage) say that they will discount commercial properties with a fortified roof. The fortified roof program will help South LA for commercial and personal properties. Ask your contractor about the grant program.

FORTIFIED Commercial - FORTIFIED - A Program of IBHS FORTIFIED Commercial is a voluntary, above-code resilient construction standard designed to strengthen businesses against severe weather, like hurricanes and tornadoes.

ICAT is up and running in St. Tammany and Jefferson Parishes today. Max coverage amount is $2M. Looks like some claims will get it declined, but others can go through. New roof is better but not mandated that we can tell. Home needs to be newer than 1995, but some exceptions.

Seeing a lot of people who have gone with ACV on their roof. Also, a lot of carriers are leaving the roof at replacement costs, but adding "aesthetic" endorsements.
This limits your claim to only functional damage on the roof. So if it just looks ridiculous to replace a portion of the roof the carrier is not obligated to replace the whole thing if they can prove part of the roof is still functioning.

Roof Insurance: ACV versus Replacement Cost | Bankrate A popular trend these days when it comes to roof insurance is for insurance companies to offer actual cash value coverage for homeowners in lieu of the more traditional full replacement coverage that was popular in the past.

Need the details but it could be good news.

My request for larger coffe mugs and higher quality koozies was fulfilled. Huge.