RMS’s Sandy Insured-Loss Estimate Is $20-$25 Billion, WSJ Reports

Catastrophe modeling firm Risk Management Solutions’ insured loss estimate for Sandy would be in the range of $20 billion to $25 billion, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

RMS has not yet published its estimate publicly as of Thursday morning — but the firm has offered its $20-$25 billion estimate figure to its corporate clients this week, according to the report. The figure was mentioned yesterday during an industry conference call by RenaissanceRe President and Global Chief Underwriting Officer Kevin O’Donnell. RMS declined Insurance Journal‘s request to confirm the reported figure.

The $20-$25 billion insured loss estimate is higher than the ones published earlier from Eqecat, whose revised loss estimate range is between $10 billion and $20 billion, and AIR Worldwide, whose loss estimate range is $7 billion to $15 billion.

At the higher end of the $20-$25 billion estimate, Sandy would rank second only to Hurricane Katrina in terms of industrywide insured losses.