The president of the owners association of the Four Seasons of Romar Beach condominiums was disgruntled enough to write a letter to the Alabama Insurance Commissioner Walter Bell asking if their rate increase was legal. I can understand his actions following “the annual premiums flying from around $40,000 to nearly $1.1 million.”
Along the coast traditional insurers have pulled out of that market, “leaving only reinsurers and state-sponsored insurers of last resort.” Reinsurers, unlike traditional insurers, “do not need approval from the state Insurance Department to raise rates.”
The good news is as reinsurers fill up their depleted pockets with insurance premiums, due to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, “traditional insurers will enter back into the market and drive down prices.”
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