MEDIA RESOURCES
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DATE: January 14, 2005
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Andrea Hugg
(214)768-4474
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OR
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Lindsay Hogan
(214)768-1794
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Examining the Texas Homeowner's Insurance Market SMU Cox Professor Compares the Texas, California, and Illinois Insurance Industries
DALLAS, Texas (SMU) - The election may be over, but the concern of rising homeowner's insurance rates is not. In his research, Thoughts on the Texas Homeowner's Insurance Market, Robert Puelz, the Dexter Professor of Insurance at SMU's Cox School of Business, compares the Texas, California, and Illinois insurance industry from 1996 through 2001. In it, he looks at the regulated and non-regulated insurers and the loss ratio (incurred losses to earned premiums) of each in the three states.
"Texas homeowner's market performance has deteriorated significantly over the past two calendar years with the trend for Texas rate-regulated entities being more severe than their non rate-regulated counterparts," Puelz writes. "Constituent sentiments may be embodied in legislative reactions that can have broad and enduring effects, thus informed decision-making by policymakers is vital. Some will argue that insurance consumers are best served by competition and deregulation while others understand the world from a different view," he later explains.
This paper is just the beginning of a larger study that is collecting survey data from insurers participating in the Texas homeowner's insurance market.
Professor Puelz may be contacted directly at 214.768.4156 or rpuelz@mail.cox.smu.edu.
