Opportunities and Challenges related to Personal Lines Private Market Flood Insurance

A substantial amount of the flood risk that home owners have is transferred to the federal government through the National Flood Insurance Program. The private insurance industry, however, bears a significant amount of the flood risk in excess of $250,000 of building coverage ($100,000 for contents) for flood-exposed properties. In this presentation, the authors will 1) characterize the business value of primary insurance companies offering excess flood coverage and 2) suggest science-based criteria that could be used to enhance the state of practice of underwriting excess flood insurance coverage.