Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says his department is doing all it can to find new property insurance coverage for tens of thousands of Louisianans who’ve been dumped by their current coverage. Six companies have quit the state; leaving their customers scrambling to find new coverage in a relatively short amount of time. With hurricane season already upon us, Donelon says a Florida-based company has offered to take on a great number of those. “All 65-thousand of those policies were assumed – seamlessly – by a company out of Miami, Florida called Safepoint,” Donelon says.
He says he is keenly aware of what cancelled or dropped homeowners are going through, because he is one of them. His homeowner’s insurance company also left the state.
“When I get time, I’m supposed to be shopping for coverage somewhere else, to replace the policy that I had for the past ten years.”
Donelon says, all-in-all, about 80-thousand will need to arrange new coverage, if they have not already done so, and they’ll have only another 6 to 8 weeks to do it. He says he is optimistic that other companies will take on the majority of that business, but some will have to go the state’s insurer of last resort, Louisiana Citizens. He says in most cases, companies will agree to write policies that are retroactive to the date of cancellation of their previous coverage.
“That has greatly relieved the pressure on policyholders and their agents in getting un-interrupted coverage, from either another private insurer or from Citizens, on a retroactive basis.”
Comments