Property owners to get checks

• Advocate business writer
• Published: Jan 5, 2009 - UPDATED: 4:25 p.m.

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A $100 million state program that paid property insurers to do more business in Louisiana expired Wednesday, and the remaining $71 million will be divided among the state’s property owners, Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said Monday.

Property owners will receive state checks of maybe $50 as a result.

In exchange for state grants from $2 million to $10 million, insurers agreed to put up a matching amount and use the money to write new business.

Louisiana held three rounds of grant applications, issuing $29 million in grants to five companies during the first round, Donelon said. Two other companies, American Integrity Insurance Co. and Bankers Insurance Co., both of Florida, applied for $5 million apiece during the second round but could not meet the state’s financial requirements.

“The bad news was that there were no takers during the third round,” Donelon said during a meeting of the Baton Rouge Press Club.

American Integrity and Bankers officials had told the Insurance Department they planned to boost their financial positions and re-apply during the third round, Donelon said, but that did not happen.

The law creating the program requires that the remaining money be divided among the state’s property owners, Donelon said.

The companies that received grants were Occidental Fire & Casualty of North Carolina; Companion Property & Casualty Insurance Co. of Columbia, S.C.; ASI Lloyds of St. Petersburg, Fla.; Imperial Fire & Casualty Insurance Co. of Opelousas; and Southern Fidelity Insurance Co. of Tallahassee, Fla.