Farmers Rate Hike Request

Farmers Insurance Exchange has requested an average 39 percent statewide increase for its 25,500 insured homeowners in Louisiana. Details on which areas would receive the largest increases – or decreases – are not public until Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon decides on the request. Donelon says that Farmers is reducing the amount of coverage it writes in coastal states. In 2008, the company had 40,000 Louisiana homeowners. Company spokesman Jerry Davies told The Associated Press that an increasing number of fire and storm claims led to the request. Farmers last received a homeowners’ rate hike in 2009 ranging from 6.9 percent to 15.5 percent.