BATON ROUGE — A new law taking effect in the new year will bring flexibility to insurance companies.

Louisiana had a unique law that some say caused insurance companies not to want to practice here. 

The CEO of Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Louisiana, Ben Albright, says the new law removing certain protections for homeowners is a major change.

"So what it does, it essentially says that there was a law in the books that said that insurance companies could not cancel or non-renew any policy that’s been in effect for more than three years. So the change is that it’s no longer applicable. So no new policies will get that kind of protection," Albright says.

The new law also removes restrictions on raising deductibles, allowing insurers more flexibility to adjust premiums or deductibles on policies in effect before Aug. 1, 2024.

"If you had a bunch of claims that were not caused by natural disasters you would have been able to been canceled under the old law. Under this law that law no longer applies. So all those provisions about more than two claims in three years is no longer applicable because that was struck from the law from most policyholders,” Albright said.

Albright said he believes the change and replacement of the old law will bring more insurance companies to the state.

"Insurance companies hate this law. It makes it really difficult for them to manage their risks which is extremely important for an insurance company. Louisiana was not only the state in the country to have a law like this but the only place in the entire world that had a law like this,” Albright said.

He said most homeowners won’t be affected, only those with policies over three years.

"It’s less than five percent of the total population in any given geographic area that could be affected because the new change to the law specifies there can’t be more than 5% cancellation or nonrenewals that have protection,” Albright said.

Albright said if you’re concerned about how these changes will affect your policy. He recommends reaching out to your insurance agent.