Heritage Insurance sees Q3 catastrophe losses $48M

Heritage Insurance (HRTG) Holdings announced estimated losses for Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton. The Company expects to incur approximately $48M of net current accident quarter catastrophe losses stemming from Hurricanes Debbie and Helene in the Q3. Despite the impact of the hurricanes, the Company expects to deliver positive net income for the Q3. The Company expects to incur approximately $57M of net current accident quarter catastrophe losses stemming from Hurricane Milton in the Q4. On the day after Hurricane Milton struck Florida, the Company had assembled claims handing resources in several locations including over 2,000 adjusters and more than 200 emergency service vendors ready to assist our policy holders. Twelve days following the storm the Company has received 5,435 claims with the average wait time for policy holders calling in their claims of under one minute. The reported claim count for Hurricane Milton is just under 50% of that experienced during Hurricane Ian during the same time frame. Ernie Garateix, CEO at Heritage, commented, “Overall, we are in a strong financial position and backed by a $1.30B reinsurance tower. We expect gross losses from hurricane Milton to possibly reach the third layer of our reinsurance tower which starts at $450M and goes to $914M. We continue to maintain a robust level of reinsurance coverage through year end 2024.”