Presents Ideas to Improve Availability and Affordability of Coastal
Homeowners Insurance
GULFPORT, Miss.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Greg Toczydlowski, President of Personal Insurance for The Travelers
Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRV),
participated today on behalf of The
Travelers Institute in a roundtable discussion in Gulfport, Miss.,
hosted by U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). The session convened
insurance industry experts, business scholars and elected officials at
Gulf Coast Community College to explore long-term solutions to rising
insurance costs and barriers to certain kinds of coverage on the Gulf
Coast.
Toczydlowski presented the Travelers
Coastal Wind Zone Plan, a comprehensive, private market approach to
improve the affordability and availability of coastal wind storm
insurance for homeowners. The Travelers proposal includes four key
principles:
-- A stable and consistent regulatory environment, with a uniform set of
rules applied to named windstorm coverage for coastal zones from Texas
to Maine;
-- Transparency in calculating insurance premiums;
-- Federal reinsurance mechanism for extreme events; and
-- Stronger buildings through federal guidelines for appropriate building
codes and land use planning.
"At Travelers, we recognize that a viable coastal insurance market is
important to Mississippi's economy, and as an industry leader, we feel a
genuine responsibility to be engaged in finding a solution to this
issue," said Toczydlowski. "We believe that the Travelers Coastal Plan
will help bring back private capital to the marketplace, alleviate the
current stress on the residual markets and promote the availability and
affordability of homeowners insurance within coastal communities."
Other participants in the roundtable discussion included Professors
Howard Kunrether and Erwann Michel-Kerjan from the Risk Management and
Decision Process Center at the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania, U.S. Representative Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), and Dr. Lloyd
Dixon, an economist with the RAND Corporation.
"We feel that participating in this type of public dialogue is very
important," said Joan Woodward, Travelers Executive Vice President of
Public Policy and head of The Travelers Institute. "The goal of
The Travelers Institute is to be a partner with policymakers to
contribute to solutions on a wide range of issues that face our
customers, our agents and brokers, and the communities we serve. The
only way to come up with a coastal insurance program that works is to
engage all stakeholders."
To learn more about The Travelers Institute or the Travelers Coastal
Wind Zone Plan, please visit www.travelersinstitute.com.
About The Travelers Institute
The Travelers Institute, created by The Travelers Companies, Inc.,
engages in discussion and analysis of public policy topics of importance
to the insurance marketplace and the financial services industry. The
Travelers Institute draws upon the industry expertise of Travelers'
senior management and the technical expertise of many of Travelers'
underwriters, risk managers and other experts to provide information and
analysis to public policy makers and regulators. Travelers is a leading
provider of property casualty insurance for auto,
home
and business.
For more information, visit www.travelers.com.
Source: The Travelers Companies, Inc.
Contact: The Travelers Companies, Inc.
Media Contacts:
Jennifer Wislocki, 860-277-7458
Cell: 860-391-2605
or
Erin Haberman, 860-277-3617
Cell: 860-305-9130