Losses from Hurricane Ian could top $1 billion for local insurer

UPC Insurance estimates $1 billion in losses due to Hurricane Ian.

The St. Petersburg insurer made the announcement in a short statement saying it has already received 19,000 claims from the storm and expects to receive 27,000 to 30,000 claims in all.

The company also says it already lost about $36.4 million due to Ian in the third quarter which ended Sept. 30, two days after the storm made landfall in Florida.

“There is a very high degree of uncertainty regarding the long-term economic implications of this event for our company, and the entire industry,” Brad Martz, UPC’s president and chief financial officer, says in the statement. “The company will be working closely with its reinsurers, service providers and other key stakeholders to adjudicate losses accurately and timely.”

Insured losses from Hurricane Ian are estimated to be as high as $74 billion according to the risk modeling firm RSM.

Even before Ian, Florida’s property insurance market was in trouble with fewer companies writing policies in the state and more pressure being put on state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. The losses from the storm, industry experts say, are likely to cause even more companies to become insolvent and force Citizens to absorb policies and cover some of the claims.

This as customers facing rising rates and fewer carriers to choose from turn to Citizens, a trend that is well underway. As of Sept. 30, Citizens, which was meant to be the insurer of last resort, had 1.07 million policies in place, up from 708,919 at the same point last year.