State Farm's Storms Loss Is $3.6 Billion
By Michael Ha
NU Online News Service, Dec. 10, 4:3 p.m. EST?State Farm, the largest U.S. property-casualty insurance company, estimated that the unprecedented hurricane season of 2004 will cost the company about $3.6 billion.[@@]
The company said it expects to recover some $630 million from Florida's hurricane catastrophe fund.
"Our overall loss estimates are $3.6 billion and from that, $3.3 billion is specific to Florida. Our estimates include auto, homeowners and some commercial business," State Farm spokesman Robert Phillips told National Underwriter. Mr. Phillips said that loss estimate is likely the largest such estimate among the U.S. property-casualty insurers.
Mr. Phillips said that for homeowners coverage, State Farm received a total of about 272,000 claims, and for auto, the company received 56,842 claims from the four hurricanes that devastated parts of Florida and Southeastern United States.
"That's everything we are expected to pay. However, we do expect to receive about $630 million back from Florida's state-run hurricane catastrophe fund," Mr. Phillips said. "So, when we do receive $630 million from the hurricane fund, our loss would be slightly below $3 billion."
Allstate, the second-largest property-casualty insurer in the United States, had announced earlier that its hurricane losses would amount to about $1.1 billion after taxes and reinsurance.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.