Louisiana lawmakers loosened restrictions last year on insurers’ ability to drop homeowners, arguing fewer limits would steady a market where premiums sit at crisis levels.
Critics warned of mass nonrenewals. Insurers and Republican sponsors said the rule cleanup arrived late.
Data from the Louisiana Department of Insurance show a muted response nearly a year after repeal of the three-year rule, which had blocked insurers from canceling homeowners who kept coverage for three straight years. Only one insurer has formally moved to cancel policies once protected.
That carrier is Foremost Insurance, an affiliate of Farmers Insurance. Foremost canceled fewer than 5% of policies previously covered by the rule, staying below the threshold that would trigger regulatory approval. Notification was required. Approval was not.
Foremost controls about 2% of Louisiana’s homeowners market. Over the past year, it also pushed through rate increases on several thousand policies.
Spokesperson Luis Sahagun said the increases reflected property-level risk, inflation, and broader cost pressure. He described the limited nonrenewals as routine risk management, not a strategic shift.
Other large insurers have stayed put so far. State Farm and SureChoice, the state’s two largest homeowners writers, declined to comment. More action remains possible later. Early uptake stays thin.
The slow response highlights how little has changed in Louisiana’s market more than four years after Hurricane Ida rattled capacity and pricing. The legal barrier fell. Appetite didn’t arrive with it.
State Rep. Gabe Firment, the Pollock Republican who sponsored the repeal, said he wasn’t aware only one insurer had used the provision so far.
He still framed the change as part of a longer reform arc. Even if carriers don’t cancel existing policies, new policies no longer carry three-year protection. The leverage shifted.
Firment urged homeowners to shop around, arguing some still find savings by comparing carriers and agents. Progress, he said, moved slower than hoped. High costs elsewhere in the economy magnify the hit when insurance bills stay elevated.
The repeal followed a broader regulatory shift after Tim Temple took office in 2024. A former insurance executive, Temple pushed to roll back rules he viewed as overly restrictive.
His predecessor, Jim Donelon, had backed the three-year rule as consumer protection and paired it with tax incentives to attract smaller insurers. Many of those carriers later failed after the 2020 and 2021 hurricane seasons.
The Republican-led legislature passed Firment’s bill in 2024 largely along party lines. Jeff Landry signed it into law, though he later said the pro-industry changes hadn’t produced the relief homeowners expected.
The repeal took effect in January 2025. Around the same period, lawmakers suspended a 10% surcharge on policies issued by Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance, aiming to limit spillover if private insurers shed customers.
Department spokesperson John Ford said the three-year rule deterred insurers and reinsurers from committing capital and noted Louisiana stood alone with such a restriction. He added insurers move cautiously and the nonrenewal process remains new.
According to Beinsure, early data show the repeal removed friction without fixing fundamentals. Risk concentration, reinsurance pricing, and storm exposure still drive decisions. Without movement there, policy flexibility alone won’t reset the market.
