South Carolina Evaluating Policy Discounts for Homeowners

The South Carolina Department of Insurance (SCDOI) has issued a data call for property and casualty insurers writing residential property in the state in an effort to inform its coastal homeowners of the discounts available for performing risk mitigation work on their homes.

Those required to participate in SCDOI’s data call include: the top 25 national groups based on homeowners direct written premiums with more than $1 million in homeowners direct written premiums in South Carolina; or any insurer who writes at least 10 percent of its South Carolina direct written premiums with wind coverage in Wind Pool Zones 1 and 2 combined.

SCDOI said other P&C insurers writing in the state are encouraged to participate.

The data call is being required through the Omnibus Coastal Property Insurance Reform Act of 2007. The Act says property insurance rating plans in coastal and seacoast areas must include discounts and credits for mitigation efforts including storm shutters, use of roof tie downs, flood insurance and elevation.

Raymond Farmer, director of SCDOI, said the data call was ordered as a follow through to the Act so SCDOI can provide additional information to benefit consumers. It is the first time SCDOI has issued a data call for this information.

“This will give us an opportunity to reach out to companies and have them let us know the ranges of discounts offered so we can educate consumers on what’s available,” Farmer said. “Our job is to educate our consumers that if they perform certain mitigating functions they will benefit from that.”

Farmer said companies have already been providing this information in their annual filings but the data call information will give SCDOI the opportunity to aggregate that data and offer an “additional tool to help in shopping for homeowners insurance on the coast.”

Farmer said he expects they will have the data call complete within a couple weeks after the information is received. The results will be posted on SCDOI’s website. Farmer said specific information about individual insurance company discounts won’t be disclosed but it will show the range of discounts available for specific risk mitigation efforts.

The deadline to submit the required data call information is May 31, 2016.