Life insurers join effort to help Haiti

Two major life insurers are providing disaster relief to Haiti by making donations to the earthquake-ravaged republic. New York Life Insurance Co. last week said that it will donate $100,000 toward relief efforts in Haiti, giving the money to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund for Haiti. In addition, New York Life said that it will match employee, retiree and agent contributions of up to $150,000. The company also pointed out seven other charitable organizations to which employees and agents can turn for donations and matching contributions from the company: AmeriCares Foundation Inc., Care USA, Heart to Heart International Inc., Save the Children Federation Inc., the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations' World Food Programme, and the United Way Worldwide Disaster Fund. In all, New York Life will donate up to $400,000. Also last week, the Northwestern Mutual Foundation, the charitable arm of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., said that it will donate $100,000 to the American Red Cross. Haiti, however, is unlikely to see much in the way of payouts from property/casualty insurers. At least 90% of Haiti's insured risks are in its capital, Port-au-Prince, which is near the epicenter of the 7.0 magnitude quake. Property/ casualty coverage is scant, however. Insurance penetration in Haiti is only about 0.28% of its gross domestic product, according to Risk Management Solutions Inc., a risk-modeling firm. The crisis, however, has triggered an $8 million payout to Haiti from The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, an insurance pool made up of Caribbean nations to help buffer the cost of a crisis. E-mail Darla Mercado at dmercado@investmentnews.com.