Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon has placed a homeowners insurance company in receivership after the insurer suffered losses from the combination of Hurricanes Laura, Delta and Zeta in 2020 and Hurricane Ida in 2021.
Americas Insurance Company was into receivership on Jan. 14 in the 19th Judicial District Court. A court-appointed receiver is now in charge of operating the company, according to the Louisiana Department of Insurance (LDI). Americas is in rehabilitation, a form of receivership aimed at solving problems at the company. LDI said receivership is an “important step toward the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association taking over claim payments, ensuring that most policyholders with pending hurricane claims will get paid.”
Americas has approximately 24,000 policies and 13,000 Ida-related claims, and as ofDecember 31, 2020, the insurer covered 1.31% of the Louisiana homeowners insurancemarket. Americas has been licensed in Louisiana since 1991.
Donelon’s letter ordering receivership did not specify what damages Americas experienced from the last two years of hurricanes. The 2020 storms closed insurers $10.6 billion and Ida is projected to cost insurers between $10 billion and $20 billion.
LDI said a recent spike in inflation and increasing labor and materials caused by the hurricanes has put several insurers “in danger of exhausting their reinsurance coverage and running out of money.”
Last fall, two insolvent insurers were placed under government takeover due to heavy Ida losses. In late December, Donelon announced SafePoint Insurance Co. would assumed 30,000 homeowners policies from the insolvent insurers.
Topics Carriers Louisiana Homeowners
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
Allianz Unit to Cut as Many as 1,800 Jobs in Push to Adopt AI 
Hellman & Friedman’s Hub International Seeks $3 Billion in IPO 
US P/C Industry Books Best Result in a Decade but Not All Lines Enjoy Success 
One Weather Firm Warns New England Could See Big Hurricane This Season 
