Mississippi Wind Pool Shops in London

Members of Mississippi’s wind pool board were in London last month to seek low reinsurance rates. The Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association is the insurer of last resort for coastal property owners. It insures about 46,000 homes in Jackson, Harrison, Hancock, George, Stone and Pearl River counties.

Board members meet each year with the reinsurance market’s major players, who are concentrated in London and Bermuda.

For the 2011 storm season, the wind pool bought $815 million in reinsurance for $69 million – the same amount it paid for $750 million in reinsurance for 2010. “The cost of reinsurance is the major expense of the wind pool in a non-storm year,” said Mark Cumbest, a reinsurance committee member, owner of Cumbest Realty in Jackson County and member of the state Real Estate Commission. “It is the major driver of the cost of insurance for wind pool customers.”

Cumbest was joined in London by board members Chris Boone, Joe Shumaker and Lorrie Brouse.