TWIA Study Showing Rates Inadequate by 26% and 44% Sent to Board

A study showing rates for Texas’ insurer of last resort for communities along the Texas coast are inadequate by 26% for residential policies and 44% for commercial properties has been forwarded to the board of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) in advance of the board’s quarterly meeting on Dec. 8

TWIA’s Actuarial & Underwriting Committee voted to forward the independent study on rates by actuarial consulting firm Willis Towers Watson (WTW) to the TWIA Board and directed additional study. Based on its updated actuarial analysis, WTW indicated that TWIA’s rates for residential policies are inadequate by 26 percent, and rates for commercial policies are inadequate by 44 percent.

Specifically, the Committee voted to make a report/recommendation to the TWIA Board as follows:

• The Committee accepts WTW’s report and agrees to forward it to the TWIA Board;
• the Committee makes no recommendation to the TWIA Board regarding action on rates at this time;
• the Committee directs WTW and TWIA staff to produce additional modeling output for the TWIA Board’s consideration at its December 8 meeting.

The vote followed public comment and a presentation by WTW on its updated study of TWIA’s rate adequacy and the use of hurricane modeling in estimating potential losses in its rate-setting process. WTW’s most recent information is available on TWIA’s website.

The Board will consider the Committee’s report/recommendation and the additional modeling information at its December 8 meeting.

An archived recording of the Committee meeting is available on TWIA’s website at www.twia.org/about-us/board-of-directors/archived-meetings.