Greetings:
The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Board of Directors held its final quarterly meeting of the year on December 12 in Corpus Christi. In addition to receiving routine operational updates, the Board considered and took actions on the following agenda items:
2024 Budget: The Board voted to approve the Association’s budget for 2024. The budget projects that policies in-force will increase to nearly 265,000 by the end of 2024. Direct written premiums are projected to grow to just over $815 million by the end of 2024.
Reflecting this growth, the 2024 budget increases net operating expenses to $40.2 million compared to $35.2 million in the 2023 budget. While TWIA’s operating budget is increasing, the Association’s budgeted expense ratio (operating expense as a percentage of earned premiums) will fall from 6.5% to 5.4%. The budget projects a balance of $461 million in the Catastrophe Reserve Trust Fund at the end of 2024, up from the current $278 million.
Insurance Agent Commissions: The Board received an update on a study of commissions paid to insurance agents who write TWIA policies. These commissions are currently set at 16% for both new and renewal policies. The Board voted to take no action regarding a change in agent commissions.
Automatic Adjusted Building Cost Endorsement: The Board received a staff update on Automatic Adjusted Building Cost Factors. The Automatic Adjusted Building Cost Endorsement increases the amount of coverage on a TWIA residential policy to reflect changes in building costs at the time a policy is renewed. Most TWIA policy renewal offers will automatically increase the policy’s limit of liability by about 12% to 13% at the time of renewal beginning in April 2024.
2024 Reinsurance Program: The Board directed TWIA staff to engage Gallagher Securities and others as recommended by Gallagher to begin the process of placing the 2024 reinsurance program.
Annual Performance Evaluation of the General Manager: The Board completed its annual performance evaluation of the general manager in closed session. Following the closed session, the Board voted to increase the general manager’s salary by 3.25%.
The meeting materials and archived recording for the Board meeting are available in our Meeting Library.
As a reminder, this message and all TWIA Legislative Updates are 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
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