Open your declarations page and look for two different deductibles. There is almost always an “All other perils” deductible — usually a flat $1,000 or $2,500 — and a separate wind and hail or named-storm deductible written as a percentage.
That percentage is the one that matters, and it is not a percentage of your claim. It is a percentage of Coverage A, the dwelling limit on your policy.
Do the arithmetic once, now
If your dwelling is insured for $300,000 and your named-storm deductible is 2%, you pay the first $6,000 of hurricane damage. At 5%, it’s $15,000.
That is the number to have in your head before a storm, not after. A roof replacement that would have been a straightforward claim under a $1,000 deductible can end up entirely on you under a 5% one.
Why it’s written that way
After a hurricane, carriers pay tens of thousands of claims at once. Percentage deductibles are how they keep writing in a coastal state at all — the deductible scales with the exposure they’re taking on your specific house. It’s a real trade: a lower percentage costs more premium, sometimes a lot more.
Two things follow from that.
The percentage is often negotiable. Carriers frequently offer 1%, 2%, and 5% options on the same policy. If you can absorb a bigger hit, you take the premium savings. If you can’t put $15,000 on the table in a bad week, don’t buy a 5% deductible to save a few hundred dollars a year — that’s trading a manageable cost for an unmanageable one.
It usually applies per storm, not per year. Two named storms in one season can mean two full deductibles. Read that clause, or ask us to read it to you.
What triggers it
This is where people get surprised. Some policies apply the percentage to any wind or hail damage. Others apply it only to a named storm — a system the National Weather Service has actually named — and use the flat deductible for an ordinary thunderstorm that takes shingles off.
Those two policies can be priced within a few dollars of each other and behave completely differently in April. When we quote you, ask which one you’re looking at. It’s a question we’d rather answer now than explain later.
What to check on your own policy today
- Find Coverage A — the dwelling limit.
- Find the wind/hail or named-storm deductible percentage.
- Multiply. Write the number down.
- Check whether it says “named storm” or “wind and hail.”
- Check whether it’s per occurrence or per season.
If any of those five aren’t obvious on your dec page, send it to us and we’ll mark it up for you. There’s no charge for that and no obligation attached to it — a client who understands their deductible files a better claim, and that’s worth our time.
This is general information about how coverage typically works in Louisiana, not advice about your specific policy. Policy language, carrier practice, and state law all change, and yours may differ from what's described here. Your policy and its endorsements are the contract. For an answer that applies to you, send us your declarations page or call (225) 347-4185.Red Stick Insurance Agency · Louisiana licence #1260833 · NPN 22128563.