NU Online News Service, March 18, 3:04 p.m. EST

Louisiana Citizens Underwriting Income Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon has approved an average 6.5 percent rate increase for the state's last resort insurer, the Louisiana Dept. of Insurance confirmed.

Louisiana Citizens Insurance Corp., which has about 115,000 property insurance policies in the state, had originally asked for a 9 percent rate hike. It is obligated to make a rate filing once a year.

The residual insurer's board is meeting today to move ahead with or reject the reduced rate hike Mr. Donelon approved.

Louisiana Citizens comes up with the filing by comparing market rates and its own actuarial insurance rates in each parish, adding 10 percent, and then selecting whichever rate is the highest.

Last year, John Wortman retired as CEO of Louisiana Citizens and Richard Robertson, general manager of the Michigan Basic Property Insurance Association (Michigan FAIR Plan), took over.

According to Highline Data, Louisiana Citizens was the third-largest homeowners multiperil writer in the state as of 2009 with a 6.4 percent market share. State Farm was first with 27.9 percent, and Allstate was second with 14 percent.

Highline Data is a part of Summit Business Media, which also owns National Underwriter and PropertyCasualty360.com.

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