Louisiana Personal Lines Study Guide

Personal lines is where Louisiana’s hurricane experience turned into consumer protection, and the result is a body of law more protective of established homeowners than almost anywhere else. An insurer that has carried a policy for three years cannot walk away from it for most reasons. Storm claims are carved out of the count that would otherwise let them. And a policy attempting to charge two deductibles for one hurricane is not merely limited — it is void.

The three-year rule

La. R.S. 22:1265 is the centrepiece. An insurer “shall not cancel or fail to renew a homeowner’s policy of insurance that has been in effect and renewed for more than three years” except for five reasons:

Nonpayment of premium. Fraud of the insured. A material change in the risk being insured. Two or more claims within a continuous three-year period. Or endangerment of the insurer’s solvency.

Five reasons and no others. After three years of continuous coverage, a Louisiana homeowners policy becomes genuinely difficult to end.

The carve-out that makes it work

One of those five reasons is a claims trigger — and in a hurricane state, a claims trigger would ordinarily gut the whole protection. Two storms in three years and the insurer walks.

Louisiana closed that hole. Act of God losses — those resulting from forces of nature without human intervention — are EXCLUDED from the claim count.

So a homeowner who claimed for one named storm and then another has not spent their two claims. The protection survives exactly the events most likely to trigger it.

That interaction is the highest-value item on this exam: a claims trigger with a weather-shaped hole in it. A candidate who learns the five reasons and stops will answer a two-hurricane fact pattern wrongly, because they will count the claims.

Reasons on request — and the six-month window

The insured is not simply told why. On the insured’s written request, made within six months of the cancellation or expiration, the insurer must “specify in writing the reason or reasons” for it.

Three conditions do the work: the request must come from the insured, be in writing, and arrive within six months. A phone call to the agent does not trigger the duty.

Auto cancellation — numbers that moved in 2026

Personal auto runs on R.S. 22:1266, and the notice periods changed recently enough that a stale source will disagree with you.

The initial window is 60 days — the cancellation-reason restrictions do not apply to an auto policy in force fewer than sixty days, unless it is a renewal (subsection (B)(2)).

Nonpayment takes 10 days’ notice. A permitted cause takes 60 days. And nonrenewal takes 60 days’ advance notice — raised from 20 days by Acts 2025 No. 182, effective 1 July 2026 (subsection (E)).

That nonrenewal change is the one to watch. Twenty days was the Louisiana figure for a long time and appears throughout older material. It is sixty now.

Anti-stacking — one event, one deductible

Regulation 93 governs named storm and hurricane deductibles, and its central rule is unusually blunt.

Regulation 93 renders null and void any homeowners policy provision that would apply more than one deductible to a loss resulting from a single incident.

Not limited. Not unenforceable in part. Null and void — the sanction falls on the policy provision itself. One event, one deductible.

Regulation 93 also requires insurers to set regional named-storm deductibles by filed business plan, and to itemise the premium savings in dollars on the renewal notice when a deductible changes. The consumer must be able to see what the higher deductible bought them.

The disclosure in 14-point type

R.S. 22:1332 requires a disclosure form, developed by the Commissioner, in bold print of at least 14-point font, inserted at the front of the policy. It must cover:

Whether a separate deductible applies to hurricane, wind or named-storm damage — and if so, one standardized example of how it applies.

That making a claim below the deductible, producing no payment, may still be used to increase future premium or as part of the basis for cancellation.

And whether the insured has flood or mould coverage, together with a statement that flood insurance is available through the NFIP and excess flood cover may be available separately.

That third element is the doctrinal reason Louisiana imposes 3 hours of flood CE on personal lines producers. The state made flood disclosure a carrier obligation and flood literacy a producer one, and the two provisions are designed to work together.