September 14, 2011
By: Carrie Van Brunt-Wiley
Hawaii homeowners insurance premiums may soon undergo a makeover, as the insurance commissioner has deemed them to be too costly.
Insurers have until October 6 to file revised insurance rates, which would go into effect some time next year.
Gordon Ito, the state's insurance commissioner, said while there has been an increase in the number of claims filed within the past few years, insurers' earnings are too disproportionate to their costs.
"For a number of years the profitability has been 45.6 percent which I feel is excessive," said Ito. "We sent out a memo to homeowner insurers to re-file their rates because we deemed them to be excessive."
Thus far, among the 30 insurance companies that cover Hawaii homeowners, some proposed rate cuts have ranged between 3 and 24 percent of current costs, KITV reports.
"Twenty percent would be wonderful, but even a little bit would be helpful," said Kaimuki resident Bessie Kam in an interview with the station.
Because of the high number of environmental disasters around the country this year in other areas, there's a chance premiums may rise for many states in the near future.
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