a fan wrote: ↑Fri Jun 02, 2023 1:18 pm
runrussellrun wrote: ↑Fri Jun 02, 2023 1:12 pm
This IS a good thing, yes ? Heard wallstreet banksters were shutting down Florida home owners insurance policies. Is this, that ?
https://flgov.com/2023/05/31/governor-d ... r-strikes/
ALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, Governor DeSantis signed three bills that strengthen Florida’s property insurance market, expand the state’s home hardening and hazard mitigation programs, and further protect consumers against bad actors. These actions build on the Governor’s strong record of instituting meaningful reforms to Florida’s property insurance market. Additionally, Governor DeSantis is announcing the approval of an additional $100 million in the 2023–24 General Appropriations Act for the My Safe Florida Home Program which provides grants to Florida homeowners for hurricane retrofitting, making homes safer and more resistant to hurricane damage and bringing the state’s combined investment to $250 million over the past year.
“Since taking office, Florida has instituted a series of reforms to increase consumer choice and accountability in our insurance market,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “The bills I’ve signed today reinforce our commitment to Florida policyholders by investing in hazard mitigation programs and instituting a series of accountability measures that protect consumers from predatory insurer practices.”
What happened to TAATS? You understand this is a government press release, right?
You're just gonna take it at face value, and not apply your TinFoilHat reasoning to it? Follow the money, that sort of thing?
DeSantis gets a pass from RRR?!
Awesome.
Yup…
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/s ... 698579.htm
https://www.artemis.bm/news/while-citiz ... -40-to-60/
While Citizens seeks 14.2% rate increase, other Floridians seek 40% to 60%+
Steve Evans16th March 2023
Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is asking the regulator to approve average rate increases of 14.2%, to cover off rising costs, including from reinsurance, and to bring its rates closer to the private market.
Florida Citizens logoFlorida Citizens CEO Tim Cerio explained at a Board meeting this week that the insurers’ rates are “artificially low” and encouraged steps to be taken to reduce the size of Citizens role in the Florida property insurance market.
Citizens needs to return to the role of the insurer of last resort, he said, and actuarially sound rates must be charged so that Citizens is no longer so competitive on pricing, versus the private market.
Florida Citizens has an accepted glide path for rates that it is allowed to follow, that limits Citizens’ annual rate increases to no more than 12% in 2023, or 13% in 2024, for most of its policies.
Some expenses are allowable and as a result Florida Citizens rate filings will propose 14.2% for personal lines and 12.3% for commercial.
Part of the rate increases are to cover increased reinsurance costs that Citizens is facing, although at such low rate increases it’s unlikely this is being covered particularly well, given the glide path restriction.
As we reported earlier this week, Citizens is budgeting to spend another $725 million in premium to secure a further $4.2 billion of reinsurance and risk transfer for 2023.
That’s on top of the recent spend to secure the insurers first industry loss trigger catastrophe bond, the $500 million Lightning Re deal.
While the Florida Citizens Board is approving the maximum rate increase request that is allowable, under the glide path rule, this still falls far behind the rate increases being asked for by other Florida focused property insurers.
In fact, First Community Insurance Company has been seeking a 44.8% statewide average increase in their homeowners rates from the regulator, while the Kin Interinsurance Network secured a 61.5% statewide average increase for its homeowners policies in the last year.
Florida Citizens policy count has risen from 569,868 on March 31st 2021, to 1,223,204 in the last week.
The insurer anticipates hitting 1.5 million policies before the end of 2023, as its significant growth is set to continue.
“CEO Cerio said, “The larger we grow, the greater our exposure, and the greater our exposure, the greater the potential financial burden on the taxpayers of Florida, people who aren’t even Citizens customers,” referring to the chance of assessments.
All of which makes securing the necessary reinsurance protection even more important this year, as with exposure significantly higher and still growing along with the policy count, Florida Citizens is perhaps more exposed to needed assessments than ever before at this stage, making risk transfer a key tool for the insurer.
Citizens previous CEO had forecast a chance of more meaningful policy depopulation towards the end of this year for the insurer.
Which presents an opportunity to reinsurance and ILS capital to support take-outs from the insurer.
Now, with legislation meaning any policyholder that gets an offer from the private insurance market within 20% of the Citizens price must take it, Citizens still needs these rate rises to ensure depopulation goes to plan, as if its rates remain too far below private carriers the chances of many choosing to leave what is often perceived as a source of cheaper cover appear slim.
Florida's insurance crisis: Could State Farm leave the sunshine state?
State Farm is no longer insuring homeowners in California because of the state's wildfires. As hurricane season kicks off, could Florida be the next state to get the insurance giant's boot?
State Farm is no longer providing home insurance in California because of wildfire risks and increases in construction costs. In Florida, an ongoing insurance crisis rages on and the 2023 hurricane season is here. Could State Farm pull out of the Sunshine State too?
Homeowners in Florida pay more for their insurance than most of the nation, paying over $4,000 each year on average, almost three times the national average for home insurance rates. With each year and each hurricane season, the cost for homeowners insurance in Florida increases much faster than the national rate.
Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications for the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I), told USA TODAY that the average cost of home insurance increased 33% in Florida in 2022, topping the national increase of 9% by 24%.
State Farm is leaving California:Insurance provider will no longer insure new homes in California because of wildfire risks
Insuring a home in the sunshine state:Best insurance providers in Florida as of June 2023
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/new ... 278487007/
Why would State Farm consider leaving Florida?
Florida's home insurance market was a wreck after the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) paid out almost $4 billion in flood insurance payouts after Hurricane Ian last September. Florida's struggle with spiking home insurance prices didn't start there, though.
At the start of the 2022 hurricane season, many insurers started to scale back their policy options in the sunshine state, sparking a hike in the already-high cost for Floridians to insure their homes against damage from the state's frequent thunderstorms and hurricanes. Some insurers left the state altogether, others went out of business. Amidst the insurer exodus, State Farm stayed put. But now that the industry giant has left California, it's more likely that State Farm would decide to leave Florida as well.
Living in Florida?These flood insurance facts could save you thousands
Florida insurance crisis:some homeowners eye an exit
Which insurance providers have left Florida or gone out of business?
In June of 2022, insurance provider Southern Fidelity went bankrupt and was liquidated. As a result, around 80,000 homeowners in Florida were left without home insurance.
Soon after, in August, Weston Property & Casualty Insurance of Coral Cables also closed its doors and canceled all policies.
Also in August, United Insurance Holdings Corp. announced it was leaving the Florida, Texas and Louisiana markets.
In September, FEDNat was liquidated just a few days before Hurricane Ian hit the state's West coast.
Which insurance providers still issue policies in Florida?
Although the insurance crisis in the sunshine state seems no closer to being solved than it did last June, there are still insurance providers who insure homes in Florida.
Here are some average prices for homeowners' insurance available to Floridians, according to an insurance guide from USA TODAY:
Chubb - around $1,890 per year
Progressive - around $1,340 per year
Tower Hill - around $1,350 per year
Universal - around $1,550 per year
Lianna Norman covers trending news in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at
[email protected]. You can follow her reporting on social media @LiannaNorman on Twitter.
