LOUISIANA CITIZENS CONTINUES TO SHED POLICIES

Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance, the state’s last-resort property insurance, continues to shed policies despite the ongoing impacts of 2020’s tropical cyclones Cristobal, Laura, Sally, Delta and Zeta and tighter reinsurance market conditions. The high number of hurricanes and the hardened reinsurance market would normally lead to an increase in the Citizens portfolio as private insurers decide to cancel or not renew policies. The declining policy count is also the result of Citizens ongoing 14th round of policy depopulation, in which select policies are made available to private insurers. “By enacting a proactive reinsurance strategy and using modeling to select policies for depopulation, Citizens is in a strong financial position and providing stability to the homeowners market during a turbulent time,” Louisiana insurance commissioner Jim Donelon said. With its robust reinsurance programme, Citizens suffered only $35m in net losses from the 2020 storms.