Allstate Calls for More U.S. Aid for Disasters

The head of one of America’s largest insurers called for a larger federal role in insurance by urging the government to start a fund to cover losses from natural disasters and to create a regulator to strip out some state oversight powers.

Allstate Corp. Chief Executive Edward Liddy said the insurance industry did not have the capital to cover the multibillion-dollar losses from natural disasters, such as those from hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year. Congress should create a national program to back up states’ natural catastrophe insurance programs, Liddy said.