Fact file: Georgia hurricane insurance

June 2020

  • Three of the ten most costly hurricanes to hit the United States caused insured property damage in Georgia: Hurricane Michael in 2018, Hurricane Irma in 2017, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
  • Georgia has a residual market plan that acts as a market of last resort for residential and commercial property insurance in the state. The plan had 14,176 habitational and business policies in fiscal year 2019, down from 22,844 policies in fiscal year 2016. Exposure to loss under the plan was $2.1 billion in 2019, down from $3.0 billion in 2016.
  • There were 86,583 flood insurance policies in Georgia in 2018. Standard homeowners policies typically do not cover flood damage. Flood insurance is covered by the National Flood Insurance Program and an increasing number of private insurers.
  • Between 10,000 and 163,000 single-family homes are at risk of damage from storm surge in Georgia, according to CoreLogic. In terms of reconstruction costs, storm surge damage would range from $3.0 billion to $37.33 billion. The ranges reflect the intensity of hurricanes, with the lower range corresponding to a weak hurricane and the highest range reflecting damage from Categories 1 up to a rare Category 5 hurricane.

Top 10 Writers Of Commercial Insurance In Georgia By Direct Premiums Written, 2019 (1)

 

Rank Group/company Direct premiums written ($000) Market share
1 Travelers Companies Inc. $520,368 5.7%
2 Liberty Mutual 467,456 5.1
3 Chubb 448,156 4.9
4 American International Group (AIG) 336,481 3.7
5 Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 327,435 3.6
6 Zurich 301,176 3.3
7 Auto-Owners Insurance Co. 280,406 3.1
8 CNA 276,438 3.0
9 Hartford Financial Services 264,412 2.9
10 State Farm 241,419 2.6

(1) Before reinsurance transactions.

Source: NAIC data, sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Insurance Information Institute.

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Top 10 Writers Of Homeowners Insurance In Georgia By Direct Premiums Written, 2019 (1)

 

Rank Group/company Direct premiums written ($000) Market share
1 State Farm $923,431 25.9%
2 Allstate Corp. 444,808 12.5
3 USAA Insurance Group 399,371 11.2
4 Travelers Companies Inc. 212,935 6.0
5 Liberty Mutual 197,929 5.5
6 Auto-Owners Insurance Co. 172,823 4.8
7 Farmers Insurance Group 159,001 4.5
8 Georgia Farm Bureau 122,669 3.4
9 American Family Insurance Group 102,235 2.9
10 Nationwide Mutual Group 96,576 2.7

(1) Before reinsurance transactions.

Source: NAIC data, sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Insurance Information Institute.

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Top 10 Writers Of Private Passenger Auto Insurance In Georgia By Direct Premiums Written, 2019 (1)

 

Rank Group/company Direct premiums written ($000) Market share
1 State Farm $2,062,627 20.8%
2 Progressive                               1,400,808             14.1
3 Berkshire Hathaway Inc.                               1,305,915             13.2
4 Allstate Corp.                                  948,576               9.6
5 USAA Insurance Group                                  917,381               9.2
6 Liberty Mutual                                  373,918               3.8
7 Auto-Owners Insurance Co.                                  344,268               3.5
8 Travelers Companies Inc.                                  315,498               3.2
9 Georgia Farm Bureau                                   252,117               2.5
10 Farmers Insurance Group                                   238,218               2.4

(1) Before reinsurance transactions.

Source: NAIC data, sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Insurance Information Institute.

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Top 10 Costliest Hurricanes In The United States (1)

($ millions)

        Estimated insured loss
Rank Date Location Hurricane Dollars when occurred In 2019 dollars (2)
1 Aug. 25-30, 2005 AL, FL, GA, LA, MS, TN Hurricane Katrina $41,100 $52,828
2 Sep. 19-22, 2017 PR, USVI Hurrican Maria (3) 25,000-30,000 26,100-31,300
3 Sep. 6-12, 2017 AL, FL, GA, NC, PR, SC, UV Hurricane Irma (3) 25,000-30,000 26,100-31,300
4 Aug. 25-Sep. 1, 2017 AL, LA, MS, NC, TN, TX Hurricane Harvey (3) 18,000-20,000 18,800-20,800
5 Oct. 28-31, 2012 CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, ME, NC, NH,
NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WV		 Hurricane Sandy 18,750 21,065
6 Aug. 24-26, 1992 FL, LA Hurricane Andrew 15,500 25,867
7 Sep. 12-14, 2008 AR, IL, IN, KY, LA, MO, OH, PA, TX Hurricane Ike 12,500 20,861
8 Oct. 10-12, 2018 AL, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA Hurricane Michael 9,000-12,000 9,200-12,200
9 Oct. 24, 2005 FL Hurricane Wilma 10,300 13,239
10 Aug. 13-14, 2004 FL, NC, SC Hurricane Charley 7,475 9,906

(1) Property losses only. Excludes flood damage covered by the federally administered National Flood Insurance Program. Ranked on dollars when occurred. As of April 17,2020.
(2) Adjusted for inflation through 2019 by the Insurance Information Institute using the GDP implicit price deflator.
(3) Insurance Information Institute estimate based on data from catastrophe risk modelers, reinsurance companies, the Property Claims Services unit of Verisk Analytics, the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. These estimates are preliminary because the organizations involved periodically resurvey the events, and the severity of losses and other factors create a high level of uncertainty surrounding the ultimate loss figures.

Source: Insurance Information Institute, catastrophe risk modelers, reinsurance companies, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, the Property Claim Services® (PCS®) unit of ISO®, a Verisk Analytics® company, and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

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Storm Surge Risk By State By Number Of Single-Family Homes and Reconstruction Value, 2019 (1)

 

    Number of single-family homes at risk by storm category (2)
Rank State Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4 Category 5
1 Florida  358,902 1,085,288 1,788,071 2,338,348 2,830,201
2 Louisiana  74,792 213,442 637,354 765,612 839,321
3 Texas  40,633 121,010 259,993 393,837 555,569
4 New Jersey  94,083 276,872 381,551 471,143 (3)
5 New York  76,797 227,962 351,783 467,398 (3)
6 Virginia  23,321 89,387 243,401 365,134 409,259
7 South Carolina  37,155 130,565 216,551 304,442 359,024
8 North Carolina  33,200 97,158 163,632 213,922 264,264
9 Massachusetts  9,310 45,042 101,171 157,311 (3)
10 Georgia  9,863 54,777 112,747 151,627 163,191
11 Maryland  16,473 58,141 96,774 124,684 (3)
12 Mississippi  9,005 29,381 60,167 90,360 102,199
13 Pennsylvania  924 21,406 58,659 85,480 (3)
14 Connecticut  6,874 29,194 47,292 68,022 (3)
15 Alabama  5,777 15,596 29,234 41,164 54,586
16 Delaware  11,027 31,329 49,517 67,320 (3)
17 Rhode Island  1,391 7,423 16,513 25,354 (3)
18 Maine  5,846 8,300 12,336 18,824 (3)
19 New Hampshire  186 3,999 7,069 9,315 (3)
  Total homes potentially affected 815,559 2,546,272 4,633,815 6,158,577 7,071,745
    Reconstruction cost value of single-family homes at risk (4) ($ millions)
Rank State Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4 Category 5
1 Florida $73,255.3 $225,758.2 $372,102.5 $482,986.8 $581,641.5
2 New York  30,075.0 94,513.9 145,839.3 194,358.1 (3)
3 Louisiana  16,343.1 47,945.9 151,667.9 182,479.3 200,785.2
4 New Jersey  27,035.0 84,599.0 119,106.5 149,676.0 (3)
5 Texas  7,399.5 22,434.1 50,758.8 80,141.0 112,087.7
6 Virginia  6,046.8 22,878.8 58,270.3 87,017.7 98,744.9
7 South Carolina  10,377.6 34,543.8 54,837.2 74,049.4 85,214.8
8 North Carolina  7,094.4 20,928.6 35,570.1 46,843.7 57,973.4
9 Massachusetts  2,381.6 12,625.7 28,897.8 46,442.6 (3)
10 Georgia  2,980.9 14,662.9 27,079.1 35,130.6 37,325.4
11 Maryland  4,046.8 13,834.2 23,084.4 29,768.4 (3)
12 Connecticut  2,429.5 9,913.0 15,895.6 22,659.2 (3)
13 Mississippi  1,947.1 6,186.9 12,375.8 18,241.7 20,554.7
14 Pennsylvania  214.4 5,013.7 14,187.6 20,823.0 (3)
15 Delaware  3,159.6 8,797.1 14,026.2 19,121.3 (3)
16 Alabama  1,143.4 2,917.3 5,387.9 7,534.0 9,888.1
17 Rhode Island  351.3 2,039.2 4,669.2 7,321.1 (3)
18 Maine  1,294.4 1,970.7 3,031.9 4,738.2 (3)
19 New Hampshire  33.9 693.9 1,395.2 1,988.6 (3)
  Total homes potentially affected $197,609.5 $632,257.0 $1,138,183.1 $1,511,320.6 $1,701,112.2

(1) The risk categories are cumulative and increase in value from Category 1 to Category 5. Category 1 represents the higher risk of damage from a weak hurricane; Category 5 includes Categories 1 to 4 and the low risk of damage from a Category 5 hurricane.
(2) Measured in units.
(3) Storm surge risk for Category 5 storms for homes on the northeastern Atlantic Coast is not shown due to the extremely low probability of a Category 5 storm affecting these areas.
(4) Represents the cost to completely rebuild including labor and materials by geographic location.

Source: CoreLogic®, a property data and analytics company.

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Other Resources

I.I.I. Facts & Stats: Flood Insurance

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