Landry struck a deal to offload commercial policies from Citizens to MS insurance company

quote:

---

Louisiana’s insurer of last resort has approved a relatively small Mississippi company’s request to take over virtually all of its commercial policies, a move that Gov. Jeff Landry touted as progress in the state’s efforts to curtail skyrocketing property insurance rates.

Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., a nonprofit created by the state Legislature in 2003, has struggled to shed policies after a massive influx driven by a spate of hurricanes in 2020 and 2021 that drove a dozen private insurers bankrupt.

The board of Citizens voted earlier this month to allow the Property Insurance Company of America, or PICA, to assume 4,764 of its commercial policies through “depopulation,” a process by which the nonprofit tries to offload its policies to private carriers to reduce its financial exposure. PICA will offer policies to virtually all of Citizens’ commercial policyholders, according to data provided by Citizens, though policyholders will ultimately decide whether to move to PICA or stay with Citizens.

Landry, who announced the move Monday, said PICA’s decision to take on all of Citizens’ commercial policies, rather than just a portion of lower risk ones, is unprecedented and will lead to lower reinsurance costs for the nonprofit.

The governor said it signals that insurers are coming back into the market rather than leaving Louisiana, which Landry attributed to policy changes state officials have made during his tenure.

---

quote:

---

Citizens is also preparing to slash commercial property insurance rates by 14% effective in November, a welcome sign for business owners who have struggled under the weight of high insurance costs for years. Homeowners rates, however, will tick up slightly, according to documents presented to the Citizens board last week.

---