TWIA Board maintains 5% rate increase for 2022 policies

AUSTIN - The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Board of Directors met Dec. 7 and declined to reverse the 5 percent rate increase on windstorm insurance policies scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, a press release states.  

The decision, on a 5 to 3 vote, came after coastal members of the Texas Legislature  wrote to the Board last month, calling on them to reverse the rate increase. 

Other actions taken by the Board at this meeting included: 

• The Board directed staff to pursue early redemption of the entire $177 million remaining on the Association’s 2014 Class 1 Public Securities. The repayment is expected to save the Association more than $16 million in interest payments on the bonds through 2024. 
• The Board authorized expenditures to carry out staff’s recommendation that the Association leverage TWIA’s transition to a hybrid work environment by moving to a smaller, less expensive office space.  The move is expected to save the Association more than $508,000 per year after a one-time $460,000 expense in 2022 to move to the new location. 
• The Board voted to select Willis Re for reinsurance broker services.  (Willis Re was recently acquired by Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. and is now known as Gallagher Re.)  TWIA uses a reinsurance broker to facilitate its annual purchase of reinsurance as part of its required catastrophe funding for each hurricane season. 
• The Board voted to re-issue its previous Request for Proposals (RFP) for a vendor for catastrophe modeling services. 
• The Board accepted the recommendation of the Actuarial & Underwriting Committee that Association staff be directed to research and analyze the costs and benefits of offering additional wind mitigation credits to policyholders, including alternate exterior opening protection and roof replacement credits. 
• The Board conducted its annual performance evaluation of the TWIA General Manager in a closed executive session. 
• The Board agreed to revisit the issue of agent commissions at the third quarterly meeting of 2022. 
• The Board approved the 2022 budget.