TWIA to Submit 0% Rate Filing for 2024 Policies

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Board of Directors met on August 8 and voted not to increase 2024 residential and commercial policy rates. The Association will file a 0% rate change for its annual required rate filing with the Texas Department of Insurance by the August 15 statutory deadline.

A recommendation by the Actuarial & Underwriting Committee to file for a rate increase of 5% for residential policies and 8% for commercial policies received a 5 to 4 vote and did not meet the statutory requirement that a rate increase filing receive a two-thirds vote of the Board. The Board made its decision after receiving public comments from stakeholders, including elected officials and other coastal community members.

IIAT's Director of Government Affairs Regan Ellmer provided testimony regarding agent commissions. "During last month's TWIA Actuarial & Underwriting Committee meeting, a TWIA Board Member shared dubious statistics that agents’ commissions are considerably lower than what TWIA pays, even though that contradicts TWIA’s research on agent commissions and research I conducted – both of which I shared. For that reason, I testified that agent commissions for like-products and policies are higher than what was suggested at the committee meeting last month," said Regan.

TWIA has hired a consultant to review agent commissions based on the work it takes to issue and sell a TWIA policy compared to other carriers' policies. "They want to compare work-load so the consultant can see and compare commissions to work-load across carriers and policies. That work should wrap up in the next month and we’ve been told we’d get a copy of the report and that we would be included in future discussions regarding agent commissions," said Regan.

TWIA’s 2023 Rate Adequacy Analysis, prepared by the Association’s actuarial staff, indicates that TWIA’s current rates are inadequate by 20 percent for residential and 22 percent for commercial coverage.

In addition to receiving routine operational updates, the Board took the following actions at the August 8 meeting:

• Directed staff to file for no changes to the Association’s maximum liability limits with TDI.
• Approved the staff recommendation to continue the contract with Aon for catastrophe modeling services with another Request For Proposal (RFP) process to take place in 2026.
• Received an update on a project to study agent commissions.
• Directed staff to notify the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts that the entire Catastrophe Reserve Trust Fund balance be kept available to fund the payment of insured losses.
• Approved the engagement of Calhoun, Thomson + Matza for auditing/accounting services for 2024 and authorized other non-auditing services.

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