Neptune Insurance, one of the largest private flood insurance providers, has doubled its policy limits on most types of coverage, including limits of up to $15 million on commercial and residential structures, the company announced.
“Property values have continued to rise, but flood insurance coverage hasn’t always kept pace,” said Trevor Burgess, chairman and chief executive officer of St. Petersburg, Florida-headquartered Neptune.
The move gives Neptune’s nationwide network of 45,000 insurance agents more flexibility in writing flood coverage, as takeup on National Flood Insurance Program policies remains relatively low for many parts of the country.
The new $15 million cap applies to residential, commercial and condominium association policies, the publicly traded Neptune said. Residential coverage was previously capped at $7 million. By comparison, NFIP limits coverage to $250,000 per home and up to $500,000 per commercial building.
Neptune also said it has doubled limits for other types of coverage products:
- Business interruption coverage has increased from $500,000 to $1 million
- Loss of rental income coverage for apartment properties also doubled, to $1 million
- Outdoor trees, shrubs, and plants coverage cap went from $2,500 to $5,000.
Neptune announced it is now allowing residential condo building association policies (RCBAP) to lock in renewal pricing.
“Mines are the greatest uncertainty” in the strait, Greenberg said, as US and Iranian negotiators held talks in Switzerland on a permanent ceasefire and to lock in free passage through the waterway.
“We’re talking more about a war-zone environment,” he said. “Only a narrow channel is really being used to transit, and so it limits the number of ships that can actually go in and out. The Navy has been working to open up a broader set of channels, and as that happens, then shipping will increase.”
Oil has kept flowing even as Iran seeks to exert control, including its announcement Saturday that it had closed the strait once again. The US military’s Central Command said commercial ship traffic increased in the strait on Saturday, with 55 merchant ships transiting cargo and more than 17 million barrels of oil.
Lloyd’s of London Ltd. and Chubb announced on Friday a joint $400 million marine war risk consortium offering companies insurance for passage through the Hormuz strait.
