Yahoo Finance Video
Hurricane Milton barreled across southwest Florida, leaving residents to clean up the wreckage it left behind. Morningstar analysts estimate the hurricane could cost up to $100 billion in losses, putting it on par with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Trevor Baldwin, CEO of The Baldwin Group, joins Wealth! to discuss how both residents and insurers are being affected by the back-to-back storms. "We have about 400,000 clients throughout the impacted areas, many of which are without power, who have yet to be able to get back to their homes or vehicles to assess any potential impacts from damage... We're an insurance brokerage, and what we do is we help our clients assess risk and match them up with the right policies, with the right coverage, to ensure that during these times, they will be able to rely on their insurer to help them get back on their feet and make them financially whole," Baldwin tells Yahoo Finance. At this point, he believes that insured losses from Hurricane Milton could be between $40-$50 billion. While this is a significant impact, he notes that the overall industry is "incredibly well" and therefore should be in a position to respond effectively. He highlights that for many homeowners, there may be a protection gap between flood and home insurance. "The traditional homeowner's policy does not provide coverage for damage arising from rising waters. So you could think storm surge, you can think surface flooding, and that coverage is typically provided by flood insurance policies, the primary of which comes from the National Flood Insurance Program... We expect there was likely 20 to 30 billion dollars of uninsured flood losses because of that protection gap and individuals who have not purchased those flood policies." To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Wealth here. This post was written by Melanie Riehl
