The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association’s Board of Directors met on January 19 and voted to establish $4.5 billion as the Association’s 1:100 probable maximum loss (PML) for the 2023 storm season. The 1:100 PML specifies the minimum amount of reinsurance needed to meet the Association’s statutory funding obligations.

The Board further directed TWIA staff and the Association’s reinsurance broker, Gallagher Re, to pursue $2.92 billion in reinsurance on the most favorable terms that can be achieved in the market. This reinsurance funding is in addition to $2.28 billion in statutory funding, to bring TWIA’s total funding for the 2023 storm season to $5.2 billion.

The Board voted to use the RMS catastrophe model, apply the model results based on long-term assumptions, and include loss adjustment expense in determining the Association’s statutorily required 1:100 PML for the 2023 storm season.

Because the Board elected to purchase an amount of reinsurance higher than the 1:100 PML, the cost for the $700 million in reinsurance above the PML will be paid by member insurance companies through an assessment. Insurance companies that issue property and casualty insurance policies in Texas are required by law to be members of the Association.

The 2023 reinsurance program may consist of traditional reinsurance and catastrophe bonds and will include $700 million in existing multi-year catastrophe bonds that will be available for the 2023 storm season.

The Board considered the recommendation of its Actuarial & Underwriting Committee, written and verbal comment from the public, and catastrophe model results from Aon, the Association’s catastrophe modeling vendor, before making its decision.

The meeting materials and archived recording for the Committee meeting are available on our Archived Meetings page.

As a reminder, this message and all TWIA Legislative Updates for this session will be archived at www.TWIA.org/legislative.

Should you have any questions, please contact me at DDurden@twia.org or (512) 505-2255.

Sincerely,

David Durden
General Manager
Texas Windstorm Insurance Association