Texas Coastal Windstorm Insurance Coalition Celebrates 50 Years

The Coastal Windstorm Insurance Coalition in Texas is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Established originally as the Windstorm Action Committee in Galveston, the coalition has expanded in recent years to include representatives from coastal communities along the Texas Coast.

As part of their annual banquet this month, Galveston Insurance Agent Henry Freudenburg passed the leadership gavel to Terrilyn Tarlton-Shannon, who spent 25 years as chairman. Freudenburg has been a member of the group since its establishment 50 years ago, and was elected chairman emeritus at the banquet.

The coalition has worked for responsible controls of rate increases by the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, the insurer of last resort for windstorm protection in Texas.

The group released some of its highlighted activities to tout it’s 50 years in existence. Those accomplishments include:

• CWIC advocacy efforts have resulted in almost no rate increases over the last five years. Over the last six years, the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) board has only voted for a rate increase once, and it was the minimum 5% increase in 2018. TWIA did not raise rates in 2017, 2019, 2020, or 2021.
• CWIC advocacy efforts produced legislative victories. In the 2021 session, CWIC worked to pass SB 1448, which enables the legislature to study and make recommendations on how to change the funding structure for TWIA so that they do not perennially try to raise rates every year on coastal Texas policyholders. CWlC also worked to pass HB 769. The board structure is statutorily dictated, and includes three “coastal” members. HB 769 states that TWIA cannot vote to raise rates if there has been a “coastal” vacancy on the board for at least 60 days.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Texas Windstorm