Tag: Reinsurance

Insurance Companies

What Happens to Insurance Companies After A Major Disaster

Posted by Jeff Raizner on

When a major natural disaster occurs, such as a hurricane, much of our focus is on our families and our own safety. However, insurance companies can take big hits following major disasters, which often send their stock prices into immediate decline. With the aftermaths of both Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Maria in the not-so-distant past, it’s important to examine why and how the insurance industry is impacted by large scale natural disasters and what it can mean for overall recovery after these major events.

According to published data about the property and casualty insurance industry, , 2017 had the highest catastrophic losses in recent years, falling between $50 and $125 billion, with losses from 2011 and 2005 rounding out the top three. Hurricane Harvey resulted in losses ranging from $10 to $25 billion and Hurricane Maria resulted in losses up to $48 billion, although these numbers are still being calculated—but what do these losses actually mean?

In the immediate aftermath of a catastrophic event, stock prices for property and casualty insurers can take an initial hit.  But usually, these stock prices lag for the first two to four weeks as investors assess damages and earnings per share adjusts downward. But that doesn’t last long, as a major catastrophe loss tends to mean higher near term premiums. And that expectation of higher premiums tends to drive stock prices back up. Within just a few months, stock prices are often higher than they were before the hurricane or other catastrophe event. The increase in premiums also benefits property and casualty brokers, who also benefit from the higher premiums.

For insurance companies, the profitability of storms isn’t limited to major events. During hurricane season in particular, property and casualty stocks routinely outperform on average, historically rising an average of 3.5 percent since 1993. This also takes into account the average amount of hurricanes that happen each year, with around 18 storms making landfall annually since 1851. The decade of 2000-2010 was particularly notable as it averaged 18 hurricanes per year, including seven major Category 3+ hurricanes making landfall in the United States. Though it might be easy to think 2017 was a busy storm season with Maria and Harvey, only nine land-falling hurricanes occurred between 2011 and 2017.

Though one may think insurance companies are at an overall loss when disaster strikes, they are still businesses who sometimes thrive off of these bad situations. While stock prices may decline in the immediate aftermath, once the disaster claims payouts become certain, premiums begin to rise and the stock price rebounds and actually becomes much higher, reaping more profits for insurance companies. This boon presents a stark contrast to the businesses and families that are left to rebuild.

Get Help With Your Natural Disaster Claim

Although insurance companies face millions of dollars in claims, the reality is that they try to limit payouts as much as possible by utilizing bad faith tactics. When this happens, you need an experienced natural disaster claim lawyer who can hold the insurance company responsible and get you what you are rightly entitled to under your policy. Contact Raizner Law today for a free consultation to discuss your natural disaster claim.

Hurricane Harvey Insurance Lawsuit Claims

Reinsurer Recalcitrance Slowing Down the Repair of Puerto Rico’s Infrastructure

Posted by Amy Hargis on

While preparing for a natural disaster is a wise idea, there are some things that just cannot be anticipated. When Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, few could have imagined the island would still be struggling with a fragile power grid ten months after the storm. One of Puerto Rico’s biggest struggles recovering after Hurricane Maria was the island’s damaged infrastructure. Unfortunately, repairs to the infrastructure are taking longer to make because of the slow response from insurance companies to pay out on claims.

Puerto Rico’s infrastructure wasn’t in good shape before the storm. The roads suffered from many potholes, the power grid was very temperamental, and a significant portion of residential construction was done informally by individuals rather than licensed contractors. But when Hurricane Maria hit, it caused a whole new set of problems. The roads and highways suffered further damage, which made it difficult to travel; and even where the roadways weren’t damaged, they were cluttered with debris and large trees that needed to be removed one by one.

For an entire island without power, running on generators was extremely important, but with the roads in impassable conditions, it was difficult to get fuel to the hospitals and other facilities that needed it for generators. Gas stations that would normally dispense fuel were damaged and left inoperable, leaving much of the island stranded without fuel.

But it wasn’t just fuel struggling to make its way across the island. All supplies, including medical supplies, food, building supplies, and electrical equipment to repair the power grid, are having trouble reaching towns across the island.

Reinsurer Recalcitrance

Reinsurance is insurance for insurance companies, and foreign reinsurers dominate most of the commercial insurance market in Puerto Rico. While reinsurance is a vitally important component of the insurance industry (it keeps insurance companies from becoming insolvent by spreading out the risks), most foreign reinsurers are dragging their feet when processing claims. If policyholders cannot get their rightful payments under their policies, they won’t have funds to begin or complete needed repairs.

Get Help With Hurricane Maria Insurance Claims

At Raizner Law, our experienced insurance lawyers are helping Hurricane Maria victims get their full compensation under their insurance policies. If you need help with Hurricane Maria insurance claims, do not wait to contact us. Our consultations are free, and there is no upfront cost for working with us. We work on a contingency fee basis, so you won’t owe us anything unless we help you recover compensation.

Reinsurance Issues In Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria

Posted by Amy Hargis on

Practically every insurance company utilizes reinsurance to pass on the risk of claims to other insurance companies, or reinsurers. Reinsurance is basically insurance for insurance companies. In principle, the practice of reinsuring risk should help policyholders get their rightful payments without fear that the insurance company will become insolvent. However, in practice, reinsurers are typically foreign based companies that have no incentive to expediently investigate or pay claims. Most primary insurance companies in Puerto Rico cede the vast majority of the liability from their insurance policies to reinsurers. Since Hurricane Maria, insurers have been so slow to act that Puerto Rico’s Commissioner of Insurance has levied over $2 million in fines to insurers who are delaying the processing and closing of claims.

The Power of Maria

Hurricane Maria was the most powerful storm to hit Puerto Rico in almost 100 years, and it came right on the tail of Hurricane Irma, which had already knocked out power on parts of the island. The island faces billions of dollars of damage and is still, eight months later, not fully recovered. Sadly, with the trend over the last 35 years of increased natural disasters more storms like Maria are to be expected. The problem of reinsurer recalcitrance after natural disasters is not going away.

The Reinsurance Traffic Jam After Hurricane Maria

Many business and commercial buildings were damaged by Maria, and thousands of business policyholders filed claims with the insurer they received their policy from, only to find their insurer had ceded the vast majority of their coverage to a reinsurer. While there is nothing unique about that process, the way the insurance market is structured in Puerto Rico has created a traffic jam preventing insurance capital from flowing back into the economy. Here’s why: the insurance market in Puerto Rico is dominated by thinly capitalized domestic insurers who ceded almost all of their risk to European reinsurance companies. But the primary obligation to inspect properties and handle claims falls to these marginally capitalized primary insurers, some of which are nothing more than fronting entities. Given the vast numbers of claims filed after Maria, these domestic insurers lack the resources and expertise to handle the volume of claims they are being presented with, and many continue to do absolutely nothing with those claims.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, German, Switzerland and elsewhere, the reinsurers who bear the vast majority of the risk on Maria claims are simply watching, waiting, and investing money they should be paying out to rebuild Puerto Rico. The reinsurer generally doesn’t have an obligation to pay until the primary insurer completes its investigation and requests payment; and the primary insurers don’t have the resources to accomplish these basic tasks.

The policy holder now has two companies either unmotivated or incapable of paying out on claims. Recalcitrant, slow paying insurance companies are causing policyholders additional economic hardship in a time when it matters the most. Without prompt payouts some businesses are unable to make the repairs necessary to rebuild and reopen.

Know Your Rights

Recalcitrant reinsurers have been a huge issue in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. There are many ways recalcitrant insurers can slow down the claims process. They have every motivation to do so: most profits for an insurance or a reinsurance company come from the “float,” meaning the cash difference between premiums and claim payouts. Insurers invest the float, and make money on their investments. Even though the insurers are being fined for their wrongful conduct, it is still cheaper for them to pay the fines than to pay the claims. This is a gross violation of the legal rights of the insured. Under Puerto Rico’s insurance laws, policyholders have the right to have their claims handled in a timely manner. Policyholders in Puerto Rico can report abuses by their insurance company to the Commissioner of Insurance. Once reported, the Commissioner of Insurance will investigate these claims and levy fines if the insurance company is found to be acting in bad faith.

Commercial Insurance Attorneys

What Is Reinsurance?

Posted by Andrew Slania on

Natural disasters have the potential to cause millions of dollars in claims payouts from insurance companies. Most insurance companies would be unable to make such large payouts if it weren’t for reinsurance. Reinsurance is like insurance for insurance companies. It allows insurance companies to pass on the risk of large payouts to other insurers in exchange for part of the premium they receive from policyholders. Commercial insurance attorneys frequently witness firsthand the effect reinsurance has on insurance claims.

Why Do Insurance Companies Need Reinsurance?

By law, insurance companies are required to have enough capital in their reserves to pay all potential claims. This protects policyholders from not receiving payouts if an insurance company becomes insolvent. For example, if an insurance company receives $50 million in premiums from policyholders in a year, but a natural disaster comes and causes $100 million in covered damages, the insurance company may not have enough money to pay out on all the claims. To prevent this, insurance companies will mitigate their risks through reinsurance. When insurance companies utilize reinsurance to mitigate their risks, they are also lowering the amount of capital they are required to have in their reserves.

What Is A Reinsurance Treaty?

A reinsurance treaty is like an insurance policy between insurance companies. The original insurance company contracts under a treaty with the reinsuring company for it to cover a particular type of risk in a group of policies. The original insurance company cedes the risk to a reinsurer and will share the premiums it receives from its own policyholders with them. In turn, the reinsurer will pay out on claims against the original insurer that involve that particular type of risk.

What Is A Reinsurance Bordereau?

An initial reinsurance bordereau is a detailed report to the reinsurer on the premiums ceded from each of the underlying policies. Typically, it includes basic details about each policy including the gross premium and ceded premium. This is how the reinsurer initially finds out the details of the policies they are reinsuring. Bordereaux are usually required periodically under a reinsurance treaty. In this case, they are frequently monthly or quarterly reports of premiums and losses. A loss bordereau will contain details of claims on reinsured policies and any paid-out losses or expenses.

Limitations Placed On Reinsurance

Insurance companies are regulated by the state (or commonwealth in the case of Puerto Rico) governments where they do business. Each state can put limits on how much risk an insurer can cede, but it often is a very high percentage. The Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) of each state can require extra approval for insurance companies to reinsure more than a certain amount of risk. For example, in Puerto Rico an insurer can cede the total or partof their risk, but a domestic insurer needs written authorization from the OIC to cede more than 75%. Various states have similar rules on whether an insurer can cede all or part of its risk to other insurers. Similarly, states and territories may place restrictions on whether an insurer may reflect proceeds due from a reinsurer as an asset on the insurer’s balance sheet, and these limitations are important when insurers calculate their compliance with capitalization rules.

Commercial Insurance Attorneys

The use of reinsurance can complicate the insurance process. Regardless of whether an insurance company has a reinsurance policy, policyholders are entitled to complete protection under their policies. If your insurance company has delayed, underpaid, or denied your insurance claim, contact the commercial insurance attorneys at Raizner Slania LLP today for a free consultation to discuss your case. We have experience dealing with the largest insurance companies in the world and our commercial insurance attorneys can make sure you get what you are rightfully entitled to under your policy.