Feds Subpoena Allstate Over Katrina Flood Claims

Feds Subpoena Allstate Over Katrina Flood Claims

4 May 2007 · No Comments

This curious story popped up at Business Insurance:

Allstate Corp., the largest publicly traded U.S. car and home insurer, said Friday it will get a subpoena from the Department of Homeland Security for documents on homeowners’ claims arising from the 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.[.]

In the Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2006, Congress authorized the department to investigate insurers
participating in the National Flood Insurance Program.[.]

[III Spokesman Robert] Hartwig said Gulf Coast legislators angry about the situation have demanded the investigation in the belief that insurers may have shifted wind-related losses into flood programs.

Let’s see, we have state governments intervening in the market by providing inadequately-priced coverage, after-the-fact attempts to reinterpret standard contract language, and an imminent ban in financial structuring that protects some insurer’s ability to write cat-prone business.

Can you tell that we aren’t exactly a popular industry these days?

Tags: Insurance · ·