Hurricane Aftermath and Industry Fallout in Commercial Insurance

P&C Specialist

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Published Oct 3, 2024

60 Minutes Hits Insurers; Helene Aftermath

- The big story of the week was the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Helene across the Southeast. Among the commercial carriers with the most exposure to the region are Berkshire Hathaway, Chubb and Zurich. We also looked at which firms in the region had suffered the worst underwriting deterioration last year in fire/allied lines. (Excerpt from full table below).

- A 60 Minutes report put insurance firmly in an unwelcome spotlight with immediate fallout for one carrier. The report accuses insurers in Florida of tampering with damage reports from a hurricane two years ago in order to slash payouts to policyholders. One of the named firms, Heritage Insurance, saw its stock price plunge 21% on Monday and its CEO came out fighting.

- Midwest-focused regional carrier Columbia Insurance Group is set to become a pure-play commercial insurer following the "difficult decision" to do a deal in which it will transfer all of its personal lines business to Liberty Mutual unit Safeco.

- Agents are not feeling the AI vibes just yet. A new survey from Liberty Mutual indicates there is interest in how the new technology can help workflow, but also significant wariness.

- Want to know if your firm is one of 'the best places to work' in the industry? U.S. News is out with a new ranking that includes almost a dozen P&C carriers.