Waldo And High Park Fire Have Resulted In Nearly $450 Million Dollars In Losses

According to RMIIA, this wildfire season has been the most destructive in Colorado history. After major droughts through out Colorado, dry conditions caused 2 major wild fires to break out. So far the High Park & Waldo Cannon fire have cost nearly $450 million in losses and counting. This is all after the Lower North Fork fire, which burned 47 homes and killed two people. 2012 has by far been the worst year for insurance companies in Colorado. Not only have the wild fires contributed to major insurance losses, but hail, wind and flooding hasn’t helped either.  Alone this year, they have added up to about $322 million in losses.

So what does this all mean for your home insurance renewal coming in the mail with in the next year? Insurance companies are most likely going to have to pass on the nearly $800 million loss to consumers. A lot of companies are also looking at or already have gone to a mandatory %1 wind and hail deductible. We are also seeing a lot of companies making in mandatory, to have both your auto and home insurance bundled with them. They will no longer accept “mono-line” home insurance policies. This is also the same for “landlord” policies as well.

We are on a “bumpy ride” with property insurance rates and conditions for at least the next 3 years. Could even be longer. I personally think this is going to change how insurance works for a long time in Colorado. Not only have we had huge losses from wild fires, hail, wind and etc., other factors have and will contribute to high insurance rates in Colorado. Previous losses from 2009 and 2011 haven’t helped. Insurance companies have and still have to deal with a bad economy. This ultimately leads to poor return on investment for insurance companies. Insurance fraud spikes during bad economies. Also people who haven fallen of the books, due to losing their homes during the recession, doesn’t help neither

All in all, I hate to be bad news bears, but home insurance rates are going up again, in Colorado. This going to effect people across the board, including people who haven’t filed a claim in their life. Consumers can try to keep their insurance rates by shopping around. In this process, please consider us. We are independent insurance agents that represent multiple companies. We can also help out people who are going to be non-renwed due to losses.

Thanks for reading.

Mark A. Schneider- (Owner/Partner/Agent)