Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Says Fewer Customers Have Citizens Insurance

Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says fewer homeowners and businesses have property insurance through the state-run insurer of last resort.

Donelon announced Wednesday that Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has 93,000 policies, nearly all of them for homeowners. The number represents less than 3 percent of the homeowners’ insurance market in the state.

That’s down from a peak of 174,000 policies in February 2008, when Citizens had nearly 10 percent of the market.

More than 14,000 residential insurance policies are being transferred to private companies in the latest round of Citizens “depopulation,” in which private insurers select Citizens policies they’d like to write themselves.

Donelon says the decline means more and cheaper insurance options are available to residents. Citizens’ rates are required by law to be the highest in each parish.