Tag: Jim Donelon

Slabbed Daily July 22-24. Lets tie a few things together

ying-yangThere have been a good number of news tidbits that do not necessarily constitute a post here on Slabbed on their own but when taken together tie up several loose ends and lend context to a story that does merit it’s own post in Mike Chaney’s recent insurance forum held last Thursday and Friday here on the coast.  So let’s backtrack a week and shake us up slabbed insurance cocktail by beginning with Anita Lee’s coverage of day 2:

Gov. Haley Barbour joined the coastal insurance debate Friday, telling an audience he believes regional compacts would be the best way to regulate wind coverage in coastal zones from Texas to Maine.

Barbour introduced The Travelers Insurance Cos. president, Brian MacLean, to explain the company’s proposal for improving the coast insurance market. Insurers have pulled back from coastlines in recent years, leaving state-run wind pools to fill the void.

Wind pools were intended as insurers of last resort, but their market shares have grown to levels that experts agree are unsustainable. Insurance works by spreading risk, not concentrating it.

Haley has been conspicuously absent from the insurance scene refusing to comment on the litigation while offering cheap lip service to Gene Taylor’s multi peril bill. I suspect he and the State GOP has been searching for a way to throw a bone to the people on the coast that helped elect him while working hard to preserve GOP big business bonafides with the campaign money machine that is big insurance. Continue reading “Slabbed Daily July 22-24. Lets tie a few things together”

Slabbed Daily June 23: Is Louisiana’s Insurance Market Really Healthy?

So who is right, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board who termed Louisiana’s private market “thriving” or our new Bermudan money changing friends fronted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute that our own Commish likes so well who last week gave Louisiana’s insurance market an F. (h/t Editilla)

Louisiana is one of six states receiving an “F” on a newly released report card ranking states’ insurance climates. Continue reading “Slabbed Daily June 23: Is Louisiana’s Insurance Market Really Healthy?”

La Insurance Commish Jim Donelon Brays on declining NFIP participation

The important concept to remember here is that most NFIP insureds adversely select the coverage thus the  slabbed from St Bernard Parish would be far less likely to buy the coverage if they moved to a high and dry area that has never experienced flooding despite the very cheap premium. Against that backdrop and given the looting of the NFIP by private insurers after Katrina I was tickled by Donelon’s appearance yesterday on WWL radio: (H/T the Ladder)

The 2009 hurricane season starts in three weeks, and state officials are expressing concern over an apparent dropoff in the number of homes covered by the federally-backed national flood insurance program.

State Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelan says the declining number of homes under the federal umbrella bothers him.

“We’re seeing a decrease, this year to last, of four percent in the amount of polices in effect in the state of Louisiana,” Donelan said.

Donelan says that as memories of the destruction caused by the 2005 storms fade, homeowners are getting more lax with their coverage.

He says that every property owner and renter in the New Orleans metropolitan area should participate in the national flood insurance program, even those in areas considered “flood proof.”

The populace here has been conditioned by Katrina and its aftermath. After all, the federal governemnt will pay for everything, from wind coverage that should have been covered by private insurance to the rebuilding tab for those who always thought flood insurance was a waste of money. And those that moved away from their pre-Katrina communities to much higher ground don’t see the reason to continue coverage so that wealthy Alabamians can continue the cycle of rebuilding beach houses on barrier islands only to be destroyed a few years later in the process becoming the NFIP poster child for all that is wrong with the program. Continue reading “La Insurance Commish Jim Donelon Brays on declining NFIP participation”

Around the GO Zone in 60 seconds: The Commish Speaks, Brownies, Jindal and The Shed

Mr CLS gave us the heads up on Monday’s insurance conference in New Orleans attended by several gulf coast insurance commissioners and members of Congress including Dollar Bill Jefferson. Rebecca Mowbray covered the event for the Times Picayune:

Catastrophic flooding and levee breaches in Iowa could help Louisiana make its case that the federal government needs to make serious investments in infrastructure, U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon said at a forum on coastal insurance issues Monday.

“I look forward to seeing how many people in the Midwest will be interested in the issues we’ve been discussing,” Melancon, D-Napoleonville, told a gathering of 200 at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans. “As we go forward, we need to invest in our infrastructure.” Melancon represents many coastal parishes.

The Insurability of the Coast forum, sponsored by the America’s Wetland Foundation, the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program, the LSU Agricultural Center and the Louisiana Department of Insurance, sought to draw the connection between the strength of Louisiana’s coast and housing stock and the long-term prospects for its insurance market. The daylong forum explored insurance, land use, hazard mitigation and public policy issues. Continue reading “Around the GO Zone in 60 seconds: The Commish Speaks, Brownies, Jindal and The Shed”