Flood Insurance Offerings Expanded

The Chubb Group has expanded the sale of excess flood insurance to homeowners in nine more states, including Connecticut.

New Jersey-based Chubb, which specializes in insuring high-end homes and their contents, already offered a primary flood policy to people who buy its homeowner policies. Primary flood insurance is typically bought instead of a federal flood policy and offers much higher coverage - up to $15 million on a home and its contents combined.

A Chubb customer who wants excess flood insurance doesn't need to buy the company's primary flood policy. But the customer must either buy a federal flood policy or accept a deductible of at least the federal policy's limits - $250,000 on the home and $100,000 on its contents.

Chubb's primary and excess flood policies have a broader definition of "flood" and as a result would cover more scenarios than the National Flood Insurance Program.

The federal insurance kicks in only when two adjacent properties that are normally dry are flooded, or when at least 2 acres are flooded. Chubb doesn't have that restriction. So if a single home in the mountains has a basement flooded by snow melting in the spring, it could be covered, said Peter Spicer, new-product manager for Chubb Personal Insurance.

The cost of Chubb's primary or excess flood insurance is generally several thousand dollars a year for $1 million to $2 million of coverage on a home, and for coverage of half that amount on the contents, Spicer said.