North Shore bank VP: Insurance firms target coastal homeowners

LYNN – The senior vice president of commercial lending at Sovereign Bank says insurance companies are red-lining Massachusetts coastal homeowners by rejecting longtime policyholders who live near the sea.Robert Gaynor, the bank executive and a Nahant resident, said many insurance companies are refusing to renew policies based on computer models that forecast natural disasters.”Being in the banking business, this is a clear case of red-lining,” said Gaynor, referring to the illegal practice of choosing to insure homes in affluent low-risk neighborhoods while declining applicants from areas plagued by crime and other troubles.Insurance companies once drew red lines on maps to divide the insurable from the uninsurable, hence the phrase.According to Gaynor, the red-lining that went on between rich and poor, white and black, is apparently being resurrected to distinguish between wet and dry. In other words, many insurance companies want the privilege of doing business in Massachusetts, writing policies for homes in the central and western parts of the state while shying away from the coast.”Banks can’t lend here and then not lend there,” said Gaynor, asserting that insurance companies should be held to the same standard. “The reality is, because these companies are anticipating the storm of the century, they’re choosing not to insure certain properties. That isn’t the way the business should run. My mother and I both went through the Blizzard of ’78. I can tell you for certain that my mother did not put in a claim. She is 90 years old and has never put in a claim in all the 43 years she has owned a house in Little Nahant. Three years ago, she was informed by Premier, her insurance company, that she no longer had homeowner’s insurance and that she would have to go through the Massachusetts insurance pool to get some at competitive rates. Well, the rates weren’t competitive. My mother had a 31 percent increase in premiums. It’s not right.”Gaynor said many insurance companies are deciding whether to insure specific properties based on proximity to the ocean while not taking elevation into consideration. Others are simply pulling out of the business of insuring coastal properties, he said, adding that residents of Marblehead, Gloucester, Nahant, Revere, Swampscott and any community within 400 feet of the ocean are being affected.”A friend of mine lives on Madonna Hill in East Boston. He’s high up and certainly not in a flood zone, but his company isn’t going to write his policy any longer because they are anticipating this massive storm of the century. They’re basing their risk on something that hasn’t happened.”In the days before computer modeling, insurance companies read the Farmers’ Almanac and studied weather cycles to calculate their risk and set premium rates.”If I wasn’t in the banking business and hadn’t experienced this situation personally, I might not be as aware of what’s happening,” Gaynor said. “It bothers me that we were told the state’s insurance pool, the Mass Fair Plan, would have competitive rates. But they’re not. Also, why does the state allow these insurance companies to flat out red-line? If they are going to do that, the state should subsidize the policyholders. Make the insurance companies put more money into the state pool, just like the hospitals do.”U.S. Rep. John F. Tierney said homeowners in Massachusetts are paying tangentially for damages wrought by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and other southern states.”I don’t know if I’d define it as red-lining, but whatever it is, it needs to stop. It is financially impacting the lives of too many people,” Tierney said.Regarding the availability of general homeowners insurance for coastal residents, the congressman said legislation (H.R. 3355) known as the Homeowner’s Defense Act of 2007 passed a House vote on Nov. 8 by 258-155 and awaits action by the Senate.”Among other things, the legislation would improve the availability and affordability of homeowners’ insur