LOUISIANA CITIZENS TO SHED 13,245 RESIDENTIAL POLICIES

Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance expects to transfer 13,245 residential insurance policies to seven private carriers as part of the last-resort insurer’s ongoing programme to shrink its book of business, Louisiana insurance Jim Donelon has announced. This month’s depopulation move, its ninth since June 2008, will cut Citizens’ policy count to fewer than 70,000 residential policies and around 3,500 commercial policies from a high of 174,000 policies in 2008. The reduction will trim Citizens’ share of the state home insurance market to around 1.5% from the 2008 peak of 9.8%, Donelon said. Participating in the latest depopulation round are locally based Access Home Insurance and Maison Insurance; Florida-based Capitol Preferred Insurance, Ocean Harbor Casualty Insurance, Prepared Insurance and Safepoint Insurance; and the Coastal Select Insurance unit of California-based GeoVera Holdings.