9/11’s Costly Insurance Impact

September 9, 2011

According to the Insurance Information Institute (III), 9/11 was the largest claims payout in global insurance history. The terror attack produced insured losses of about $32.5 billion; the cost exceeded only by Hurricane Katrina.

9/11-related losses were paid out across several lines of insurance, including property, business interruption, aviation, workers compensation, life and liability.

III ranks 9/11 as the second most costly catastrophe in the United States, the only terror-related incident making the list.

THE TEN MOST COSTLY CATASTROPHES, UNITED STATES (1)

($ millions)

Insured property losses
Rank Date Peril Dollars when occurred In 2010 dollars (2)
1 Aug. 2005 Hurricane Katrina $41,100 $45,481
2 Sep. 2001 Fire, Explosion: World Trade Center,
Pentagon terrorist attacks
18,779 22,924
3 Aug.1992 Hurricane Andrew 15,500 22,412
4 Jan. 1994 Northridge, CA earthquake 12,500 17,318
5 Sep. 2008 Hurricane Ike 12,500 12,735
6 Oct. 2005 Hurricane Wilma 10,300 11,398
7 Aug. 2004 Hurricane Charley 7,475 8,548
8 Sep. 2004 Hurricane Ivan 7,110 8,130
9 Sep. 1989 Hurricane Hugo 4,195 6,678
10 Sep. 2005 Hurricane Rita 5,627 6,227

(1) Property coverage only. Does not include flood damage covered by the federally administered National Flood Insurance Program.
(2) Adjusted for inflation through 2010 by ISO using the GDP implicit price deflator.

Source: ISO’s Property Claim Services (PCS) unit.

‘The 9/11 attack was the largest payout in the history of insurance until Hurricane Katrina in 2005,’ Dr. Hartwig said. ‘Insurers became the nation’s economic ‘first responders’ and as construction progresses on the site of the former World Trade Center, insurance claims dollars continue to play an essential and highly visible role in rebuilding lower Manhattan while also mitigating the overall economic impact of the 9/11 attack.’

Source: III

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