Insurers in Louisiana Cry About Business Losses, While Making Big Gains on Their Investments
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., April 25, 2025 — Weiss Ratings revealed today that, since 2004, homeowners’ insurers operating in Louisiana have reported total underwriting losses of $1.6 billion, while making $88.3 billion in their investments.
Weiss Ratings founder Martin Weiss commented: “This means that, for every one dollar they lost in their business, they made $55 in gains on their investments, typically using money that policyholders pay up front in premiums. And yet, when companies lobby for rate hikes or tort reform, it seems all we hear about is their red ink and virtually nothing about their big profits.”
This is also a nationwide issue, but not nearly as extreme. During the same period, U.S. homeowners’ insurers lost $23.5 billion in their underwriting, while making $155 billion on their investments. For each dollar of underwriting losses, they saw $6.61 in investment gains.
One factor that may aggravate the underwriting losses is outsourcing — in the form of large fees paid to affiliates. This is especially true for seven companies domiciled in Florida doing business in Louisiana — American Bankers Insurance of FL, Kin Interinsurance Network, Privilege Underwriters, Safepoint Insurance, Safeport Insurance, Tower Hill Prime Insurance and Vault Reciprocal Exchange.
Combined, these seven companies paid fees to affiliates of $917 million in 2024, $778 million in 2023 and $409 million in 2022, or a total of $2.1 billion in the three-year period. At the same time, the seven companies reported net underwriting losses of $297 million.
“Tort reform,” concludes Weiss, “is designed to protect insurance companies from policyholder lawsuits. What the state needs instead is truth in insurance legislation to protect policyholders from insurance company shenanigans.”
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