For decades, consumers who wanted to buy insurance against flood damage have found themselves funneled toward one dominant provider: the U.S. government.
Now, as extreme weather intensifies and brings flooding to areas unaccustomed to it, a new federal report is recommending a transformation of that market — one that sees private insurers taking an expanded role.
A panel ordered by President Donald Trump to propose changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency called for a “strategic shift” to offload federal flood policies to private companies. The plan is a green light for private flood insurers aspiring to take business away from the government program, which they say is inefficient and unable to keep pace with climate change.
Shares of Neptune Insurance Holdings, the largest marketer of private flood policies in the U.S., have surged 20 percent since last Thursday, when the FEMA Review Council issued its recommendations.
