La. Commissioner to Name New Citizens CEO

Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said on April 12 he has picked a new CEO for the state’s troubled “insurer of last resort” and will make the new chief executive’s name public during the week of April 16.

The new chief of Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. will take over for Terry Lisotta, the current CEO. Donelon said Lisotta’s replacement is a retiree who will be paid $220,000 per year, plus another $18,000 annually for expenses.

The new CEO will take over a quasi-state agency whose financial records are in disarray. The firm is now run by a team of consultants, hired by Citizens’ board of governors to overcome computer problems that have made it impossible to produce accurate bookkeeping for 2005-06.

Donelon told the board that the new hire is well qualified.

“We’re going to be in good hands,” he said.

Board members said they planned to vote next week to approve the hire.

Citizens was created by the Legislature to insure homeowners who can’t find property insurance policies on the open market.