Industry numbers are coming in for fourth quarter 2012, and there is not much good news for property/casualty insurance customers. According to the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers’ Commercial P/C Market Index, commercial coverage premiums jumped 5 percent on average during the last three months of the year. The Southeast U.S., including Florida, followed the national trend.
Superstorm Sandy missed Florida, but as we have noted in past posts the storm wrought havoc further up the East Coast. As the insurance industry looks back at 2012, it has become clearer that Sandy was a key component of insurance companies’ higher than normal catastrophic losses last year.
This blog just wrote yesterday about the havoc that Superstorm Sandy has wreaked on the insurance market. People have had to suffer through endless delays in getting the money that they deserve to help them get back on their feet. What many may not think about is the damage the storm had on several businesses, which may have also lost a ton of property.
This blog has already discussed the devastating impact that Superstorm Sandy has had on homeowners along the northern half of the East Coast. Numerous people were literally left out in the cold when their homes were destroyed and insurance companies slow-walked the processing of insurance claims.
We are continuing our discussion of the considerable losses experienced by art galleries during Hurricane, or Superstorm, Sandy. The insurance industry has been making predictions for total claims payouts since a few hours after the rain and wind stopped, but the damage to businesses that sell or display original artworks did not make it into the early estimates. In the grander scheme of things, when entire coastal communities were decimated and buildings in one of the biggest cities in the world sustained damage that will take months to repair, a niche like art galleries may seem inconsequential.
Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc with many things this past fall. People in Florida and all up and down the coast watched with dismay as the storm battered many parts of the country, killing 132 and causing damage to property. Communities are still struggling in the storm’s aftermath. The total cost to the insurance industry of all claims arising from the storm is expected to be close to $25 billion, almost rivaling the costs experienced when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.
We all know the risks of driving on New Year’s Eve. Revelers ring in the new year with a little too much to drink, then they get behind the wheels of their cars. The results can be catastrophic. Here in Miami, the added allure of the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day brings more visitors to town and provides yet another opportunity to drink to excess. The upshot is that the city’s streets could prove especially dangerous during the first 24 hours of 2013.
When a family entrusted their investment money to Bernard Madoff, they started getting financial statements from his business showing them falsely inflated amounts in their accounts to make them think that they were doing well, and perhaps should consider investing more. But the money wasn’t really there. The investment offered was actually just one big Ponzi scheme, and their money was lost. Later, they sought to file insurance claims, as many others from Florida and elsewhere who lost money did.
We are returning to our Dec. 5 discussion of long-term care insurance and the changes the industry is likely to impose beginning in 2013. Most of the changes will affect women’s coverage, particularly when it comes to premiums. Tougher underwriting standards are also on the horizon. For Florida residents, the prospect is just more turmoil with insurance in general.
The long-term care insurance market is about to change, especially for women. After years of charging the same premiums regardless of the insured’s gender, one of the country’s leading LTC insurers announced that women’s premiums will be increasing by as much as 40 percent in 2013.
