Hurricane Earl Losses To Hit Allstate, AIG

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Hurricane Earl is poised to hit North Carolina and travel up the east coast this weekend and could mean significant losses for U.S. insurers.

According to the Insurance Information Institutute, the leading writers of commercial property and casualty insurance are American International Group( AIG), with 7% of the marketshare; Travelers(TRV), with 6.9% of the market, Liberty Mutual, with 5.9% of the market and Zurich Financial , with 4.5% of the market.

Morgan Stanley's (MS) Gregory Locraft states in research note that Allstate (ALL) and Travelers were the most exposed to Hurricane Earl's losses because they do most of the underwriting for both residential and commercial insurance in the state. Allstate owns about 7.5% of the marketshare and Travelers owns about 4.6%. Nationwide, State Farm and NC Farm Bureau are the top three underwriters in the state.

After Earl hits North Carolina, the hurricane forecast to travel up the coast through New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maine. AIR Worldwide reports the total value of insured coastal exposure in these area Earl is expected to travel were $4.4 trillion in 2007.

The Category 4 hurricane has caused losses in the Carribean that range from $50 million to $150 million, according to AIR Worldwide.

--Written by Maria Woehr in New York.

To contact the writer of this article, click here: Maria Woehr.

To follow the writer on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/newsgirlmw.

To submit a news tip, send an email to: [e-mail].

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints