NU Online News Service, May 31, 11:03 a.m. EDT
State Farm's claims payments through May eclipsed $2.5 billion as payments to policyholders affected by April's harsh weather approaches $1 billion.
The company says it doled out nearly $916 million in claims payments as claims from recent destructive storms and tornadoes in Joplin, Mo., Oklahoma and Texas continue to be processed.
The "unprecedented succession of horrible weather and horrific losses" can be characterized as akin to a "spring hurricane" for the insurer, says Brian Boyden, State Farm executive vice president, in a statement.
April's weather events, when grouped together, will go down as the 90-year-old company's seventh most costly homeowners catastrophe.
About 300,000 home, business and automobile claims have come in for damage related to events in April and May, says State Farm. More than 4,300 claims professionals have been sent to 147 separate claims offices, the company adds.
Risk modelers AIR Worldwide, Risk Management Solutions and EQECAT have put a price to insurers of between $2 billion and $6 billion from late-April storms.
EQECAT says the insured losses for the Joplin, Mo. tornado—the deadliest twister in more than 60 years—could be between $1 billion and $3 billion.
According to Highline Data, State Farm was the top writer of personal-lines insurance in the United States in 2010 with a 19.3 percent market share. Allstate is second with a 10.2 percent share, followed by Zurich Insurance Group with 6.3 percent, Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group with 6.1 percent, and Progressive Group with 5.5 percent.
Highline Data is a part of Summit Business Media, which also owns National Underwriter.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly had claims payments through May eclipsing $2.5 million, rather than billion.
© 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.