Lisa addresses the Laurie Schoeman panel at the National Flood Conference, June 5, 2023
I attended the Washington, DC National Flood Conference with over 1,000 friends and colleagues. Everyone is talking about flood and warning homeowners that water will rise no matter where you live. At the conference, panelists talked about the fact that so many consumers did not have flood insurance, discovering they needed it after Hurricanes Nicole and Ian.
There was discussion about private flood insurance, with many talking about how to properly price flood from a private market perspective. Private insurers evaluating their Hurricane Ian and Nicole loss costs are taking a second look at ways to more laser focus their pricing.
And one of the more interesting sessions I attended was one about “Flood in Progress” claims where FEMA denies claims being filed “downstream” when a river has crested, for example, 5 miles north and there are claims resulting from the river’s flood progression. In practicality, FEMA asserts that insurance agents are adding or increasing flood coverage limits when a flood is already in progress. One of the audience participants asked why FEMA’s quote, bind, issuance system didn’t prevent the policy from being sold when a flood was in progress and the FEMA representatives said they are working to fix the glitch in their system.
One of the highlights of the conference was my interaction with Laurie Schoeman, White House Senior Advisor, Climate Resilience to address her group of panelists on ways the Biden administration could do a crosswalk of the $550 billion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the $300 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the American communities that are being made more resilient. Once that is done, it could be communicated to insurance companies that insure these communities because a stronger community means a reduction in the risk of loss. I explained that the insurance industry is not, for the most part, closely following these infrastructure improvements so a dashboard of what’s being done across the country is a win for all. We will keep you posted on our progress.
Lastly, some colleagues and I hosted a dinner on Sunday evening as the Conference kicked off and there were 62 folks who came to eat with us. We had a ball. Hope to see you at the 2024 event! Next up are some incredible digests of news you can use…have a great week!
LMA Newsletter of 6-12-23
