Hurricane Ian impact on BRK?

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Forgive if this has been covered. (I can’t find it.) Any insights into likely impact of Ian on BRK’s insurance lines?

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Excerpt From Seeking Alpha:

“Using the estimated $100 Billion in losses and Berkshire’s likely 3% cut, we can reasonably project that Berkshire Hathaway will face around $3 Billion in losses from Hurricane Ian, making it the most expensive hurricane in history for the company.”

I understand our exposure is mainly thru GEICO and our reinsurance policies which are capped/ limited. Glad we provide minimal if any primary Supercat coverage nowadays given the risk/reward.

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I don’t know what Berkshire’s number will be. I just returned home from a week and a half in Ft. Myers and my impression is the claims will be huge for GEICO, there will also be Boat U.S. claims and other recreational marine claims, and Berkshire’s commercial primary businesses will be hit because they cover flood (and business interruption). Most of the damage was flood and storm surge damage and most of the damage is residential. There was not a lot of wind damage for a hurricane of that “rating.” There will be many lawsuits because it’s Florida (the worst) and many of these people did not buy federal flood insurance and their residential P&C policies specifically exclude flood. The private sector claims will be centered on the policies that do include flood: Auto, motorcycle, recreational boat policies, and commercial. Berkshire will also have some reinsurance exposure but I would bet not as much as people assume.

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(I should add, we already have Progressive’s number so that should help in quantifying GEICO’s losses)

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We have friends in Naples, Ft. Myers and Sanibel Island. Of course the properties closest to the gulf itself had the worst damage.

I wonder if anyone here has any guess about the size of a possible re-insurance exposure?

I have no idea how insurance companies lay off their own risk and with whom…

Ideas?

Sincerely,

jan

:^[

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Catastrophe losses for the third quarter, net of reinsurance, are estimated to be $763 million pretax, the company said. For September, estimated catastrophe losses are estimated at $440 million pretax, of which 80% is related to Hurricane Ian.

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