Hurricane Helene isn’t just a threat to the safety of the people in its path. Depending on how much damage the storm causes50jili, it could also threaten Florida’s insurance market — and recent research suggests that market is dangerously vulnerable.
Catastrophic storms have crippled Florida’s insurance market in the past, including after Hurricane Andrew struck near Miami in 1992, leaving about a dozen insurers insolvent and causing many national insurance companies to flee the state. Florida’s insurance market is now dominated by small insurers, which often have less money in the bank than big national carriers — making them more vulnerable to collapse in the face of too many insurance claims.
Last year, researchers at Columbia, Harvard and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board sounded the alarm about Florida and the home insurance industry. In a paper, they warned that the stability of Florida’s insurers was worse than it seemed, because those insurers appeared to be getting inflated scores from the company charged with evaluating their financial health.
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