Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple talks about insurance coverage and hurricane preparedness

0:00Joining us now is Tim Temple the insurance commissioner for the great state of Louisiana. He joins us a couple of times a month and we certainly appreciate him taking the time to do so. Tim, welcome to the show. Hey, good morning. And yeah, you got a couple of busy weeks coming up with French border fast, jazz fast, dessert, classic, so music golf, all kinds of activities in the New Orleans area. No shortage of things to do for sure. And I don't know about you, Tim, but the month of March just flew by and here we are more than halfway through April now. And it looks like we're marching towards that hurricane season faster than any of us want wants to. I can tell you that. It certainly seems like life comes out as faster and faster every year. That's for sure. Yeah. So as we approach hurricane season, top of mind issues for you. Yeah, look, you know, people in Louisiana, and especially South Louisiana, you know, they're very familiar with, you know, this time of year as we approach hurricane season, just the annual reminders that we need to talk about and act on, you know, it's it's start to take inventory of your stuff.

1:18You bought things since last year, you know, take lots of pictures, video always, you know, maintain your home properly do everything you can prevent maintenance wise to to make sure that your home is prepared as possible for if, you know, if we get a hurricane this year. And as we always say, reach out to the part of insurance any time you've got a question, whether it's your specific to your property, your home policy or your auto policy or if you just want to talk about insurance in general. And and knew one of the things that we have we've gotten around to finally doing and I say that because I've been working on this project for two years since I've been in office is we've created some videos that consumers can go to the department of insurance. And on the website at lbi.la.gov and there are some videos there that will help just consumers learn more about insurance, you know, how to file a claim. You know, what is a name storm deductible? Just a lot of just good information. They're short videos and hopefully it will help people, you know, answer questions that they may have about insurance.

2:27And if it doesn't, you know, as I say, call the department of insurance. We have people that are, you know, our consumer folks are there to talk insurance, help you understand as much as you're willing to learn about, you know, a very necessary product that we all need. Yeah, and you know, one of the things that you've always said and it makes good sense is, you know, keep the information. You always have your phone on it. Maybe go to the notes section of the app and put in there who you ensure your home owners is, the policy number. Maybe if you want to throw down some limits as well. And certainly a phone number, right, to call and do the same for your auto policy, the same for your flood policy. And thereby, you know, therefore you know that you have it with you wherever you're traveling, if you have to evacuate, it's there. And if there's more than one adult family member have a couple of them do it that way, you know, if you lose a phone, the other one's got the information and you can start to reach out the folks and get things happening even before you return back to your home, right?

3:30You're right. And look, we live so much through these devices now, you know, we call it a phone, but it's really more than that. And look, there are a lot of good apps out there that can help all that information you just discussed. There are apps that capture all that for you. So you don't have to even, you don't even have to think about what information you need to get. It already has it, you know, noted so that you just fill it in. There are even some that you take copies of, you know, pictures of your policies and it will pre-filled information. And of course, we have an app at LDI and it's called LDI Connect. And there's a lot of good information there. But I encourage people to just as you said, keep all of that information because it's one of these things. You don't think about it until you need it. And when you need it, you need it right away. And it's, you know, a lot of times the last thing people want to think about. So take the time now while we're, you know, we're before we enter hurricane season, you know, the phrase we use is be insurance ready. It's one week pointed a two years ago. Be insurance ready. That's all things insurance. And the part of insurance is there to help you be insurance ready with information.

4:38We can steer you out like I said, to apps out there to collect insurance information for you and to make it as smooth as possible and you do have a client. Let's pivot real quick. Tim, I know that we're in the midst of a legislative session, but before we talk about that, homeowners insurance state of the state, anything new, anything to offer up. Yeah, look, on the homeowners front, just this week, we received a request for a company. And it is a, it's one of the bigger companies as far as premium volume in our state for a rate decrease. I think that will be a company. Another either number five or number six that has taken a rate decrease in the last several months. And I don't want to say the name yet because they have to go through the process. We, you know, when a company wants to change rates up or down, we have to make sure that they're actually justified. I know people get upset when rates go up, but, you know, we have to make sure that they aren't charging more than they should be.

5:43And when rates go down, we need to make sure, you know, I want premiums to go down as low as possible, but I also, I have a job that I'm, you know, it is in my job description to make sure that interest companies are financially solid that they, you know, are charging at least enough money for the risk to be able to pay clients. I'm not going to bankrupt, but we've got to cut me. They're going to take a bomb. I'll say it's, it looks, you know, indicate indications are it's going to be a very substantial rate decrease. And like I said, it's one of the larger carriers in our state. So I think a lot of people are going to start to continue to see premiums come down. And it knew a lot of times people, you know, I got to remind people when when when an insurance company takes a rate decrease. It's not like the like buying gas at the pump, where it can change, it fluctuates daily, you know, your premium is impacted when you change. Either you change insurance companies or you renew with your existing insurance company. That's when that change is going to take effect on your personal insurance expense.

6:44So, you know, if companies taking the decrease doesn't mean you're going to see your bill go down immediately. You've got a you've got a renew or shop. And then I keep telling people shop your insurance, not every company has taken a rate decrease yet. So, but there are almost I guess a half dozen now. So in those that information, the ones that have it is on the website, you can go to the department and see the list of companies that are doing that. And I encourage people to to shop your insurance, you know, if I said on your show and I said all the time, you work hard for your money. Make sure that you're spending it wisely. And if you're spending it on an insurance product that that insurance company earns the right for you to, you know, take the premium from you. So, there's some options out there. I think we're going to continue to see more companies on a rate decrease. Reinsurance costs continue to come down. Those savings get passed on to consumers. And when when a company takes a rate decrease, the other companies in a competitive market. And we're, you know, we have competition in our state that they're going to want to continue to to stay up with that.

7:47So, they'll you'll see other companies continue to decrease their rates as well. Tim, what about the number of companies, any new entrants coming to the market for the first time or those that left coming back? Yeah, look, and I think it was on your program last time, you know, we had two companies that had filed to do business to write residential homeowners, you know, residential property in the state of Louisiana. They are still going through that process. It is one where, you know, we have to make sure that they're, you know, they meet all the legal and regulatory requirements by financial solvency requirements of the state. And that that's normally, you know, it can be a 30 to 60 day process. And so both of those we should be very close to those companies having completed all of the. All folks in our state, so entrance will be able to add to the 12 that we've had in the last two years and and new look that doesn't mean they're going to come in and write in every part of the state and they're, you know, in like millions of a million policies.

8:52You know, I want companies to come in and take a very measured approach. I want new companies in, but I don't want someone to come in and just write a bunch of policies in one concentrated area. And then if they get hit with a hurricane and that threatens their, you know, financial solvency, I still come, you still need to be there to pay their claims when you have them. And so, but these companies are coming in. They are starting to slowly write. And again, that introduces another level of competition, which the consumers will win on. Let's pivot to automobile insurers. We talked about that last time. They were a number of rate reductions. Actually, I was the beneficiary of a rate reduction here recently was very excited about that. And I've been hearing from quite a few folks that they have experienced rate reductions. Yeah, we've got, I think when I did your program last, we were 35 companies have taken rate reduction. We're now at, I believe it's 39 private passenger auto companies have taken a rate reduction.

9:52It's north of 350 million dollars less that you and I and your listeners will be paying on their auto insurance. And that's a statewide, you know, it's a statewide number. It doesn't mean everybody is going to say, but I mean, it's, it's 350 million dollars less that we are paying to insurance companies for insurance premiums. So that's, and it's not a savings. It's just money that we're going to spend elsewhere, right? But, but it is an indication. And look, I've seen the numbers. There's, it's a national trend that there were fewer auto accidents over the last two years. And that means fewer accidents means fewer claims. And when insurance companies pay less in claims, they can bring premiums down. And that's exactly what we're seeing. And let's pivot once again, we're in the midst of the legislative session, anything causing you any concern there? Yeah, look, I mean, this, this session, the last two in 2024 and 2025, you know, 24 was a heavy focus on property insurance last year was more auto legal reform. They called it a mini, they called it a mini, a mini legal reform.

11:12Yeah, I told a reform session, but, but we've had that, we had some bills this year, a couple have gotten, you know, making progress. There was one, and I think we talked about it last time was a general damage cap bill that did not make it out of committee. So it's dead on the house side. You know, again, I just want to talk have the legislature talk about potential solutions to help reduce the expense when a claim happens. We all, you know, accidents will occur. Cars will be damaged. People will have, you know, physical injuries as a result of that. I want insurance companies paying those claims when they're, when they're just, and, you know, and I want to pay them paying those timely, but anytime there's additional costs that's associated with claims where they're having to pay more than they should have, you and I bear that in the form of higher premiums. And so the legislation we've been talking about is to try and attack where it's excessive and general damage cap bill was one of those. It's, it's not going to go anywhere this, this session.

12:19We have a bill to talk about third party litigation financing and, and we've talked about a little bit about that on your program where there are people that actually invest in lawsuits and they benefit when, when a settlement is made or when a judgment is rendered. Not the, not the claimant, not the injured party. These are people that invest in litigation and we're not saying we're not proposing a law that makes that illegal. We're just trying to say that if that is taking place, you the consumer should should be, at least be made aware of that. Yeah, absolutely. Final thoughts. Look, just we're going to continue to, I think we're in a good, we're, we've got some momentum on companies taking right decreases. I guess it doesn't mean everybody is going to get that, but continue to shop your insurance when, whether it's renewal this month, next month, five months from now, make sure that you're, you're getting as many quotes, tell your agent get quotes. And if you want to try and take advantage of it now, switch your insurance midstream. You have that option. You don't have to stay with the company for the full term of the policy. You can, you can cancel and go with the new carrier if you want.

13:29So there are options out there. There are ways to save money. And I just ask everybody to keep looking hard and call the department and we're there to help walk you through that process as well. As always, we truly appreciate your time, your insight. And thank you so much for joining us, Tim Temple, Louisiana Insurance Commissioner, have a great weekend. Hey, look, and if anybody said it to Baton Rouge on I 10, there's a, we're, we're driving in front of us looks like there's a fire on item between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, so you might want to take another route. Absolutely. Thank you so much for providing it. We'll look into it. That's Tim Temple, folks. We'll be right back on the Oakland Heart Jewelers talk and text line 504-260-1870. Stay with us.