With the latest round of “take-outs,” Louisiana’s last-resort insurer has reduced its policy count 43 percent since it reached an all-time high early in 2008.

Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says four insurers have been approved to take another 6,877 residential policies off the books of Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

Donelon says the last-resort insurer drops to eighth in market share among the state’s homeowners’ insurers, with 3.8 percent.

Citizens’ policy count falls to below 100,000 residential policies after the latest batch of policies are removed. The count has plummeted 43 percent from Citizens’ all-time high of 174,000 in February 2008.

The first round of take-outs under the depopulation program was in June 2008.

Due to the program, “homeowners now have a broader range of options for insurance, and many policyholders have previously lowered their premiums by hundreds or even thousands of dollars after having their policy removed out of Citizens to a private insurance company,” Donelon says in a statement.

Making more news of this latest round of take-outs is the fact a new insurer—Maison Insurance Co.—has emerged to remove some policies.

“The increased competition we are currently experiencing along the coastal parishes is a win-win scenario for all Louisiana property insurance policyholders,” Donelon adds.

The other companies taking part in the latest round of the depopulation program are Access Home Insurance Co., Centuari Specialty Insurance Co., and Lighthouse Property Insurance Corp.

Donelon says the group asked to remove about 29,240. He approved the removal of 6.877, starting on Dec. 1.

Citizens policyholders have 60 days to decide whether they’d like to stay with the state-run insurer, but Donelon says less than 2 percent have chosen to do so in earlier take-out rounds.