Coastal areas will be seeing rate increases by the end of the year

Homeowner’s insurance in South Carolina is expected to rise as the state’s insurers prepare for a busy hurricane season. There is no way to tell whether the 18 hurricanes predicted to form this season will actually reach land, but insurers aren’t taking any chances. Natural disasters in the Southern U.S. have already wrought a terrible toll on the industry, and the year is only half over. Many of the state’s property insurers are now proposing rate increases to help mitigate the cost of potential damage from this year’s hurricanes. The…

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2011 turning out to be one of the industry’s hardest hits

The frequency of calamitous events so far this year has insurance companies all over the nation and bracing themselves for massive losses. With destructive weather wreaking havoc throughout the Southeast and Central U.S., many insurers have already faced $10 billion in losses due to natural disasters. According to EQECAT Inc., a disaster and risk modeling firm, the national average in weather-related losses is $4 billion. Insurers can expect to see higher than average losses as an unusually active hurricane season begins soon. Disasters overseas are likely to have an effect…

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Hurricane season quickly moves in while many still pick up the pieces from the last storm

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting a tumultuous hurricane season this year. The forecast, released Thursday, predicts that as many as six major hurricanes could form over the Atlantic Ocean this season. This is unsettling news for many states in the south currently struggling with national disasters of their own. Insurance companies are bracing for yet more damages. Last year’s hurricane season was relatively tame. Winds kept most tropical storms at sea and prohibited them from forming into hurricanes. “However, we can’t count on luck to get us…

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Reinsurance company reports market strength despite major disasters

Willis Re, the reinsurance division of Willis Group Holdings (NYSE: WSH), has released their stimulating report “Shaken and Stirring”. Stirring is an understatement. The report shows that with the devastation in Japan, New Zealand, Chile and the Australian floods is still not enough to bring a hard market into play. The report finds that there has been rate increases on Natural Catastrophe Excess of Loss of between 5 and 50 %, but the recent massive earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand’s South Island are not significant to push market-wide pricing up.…

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