Relieve financial pressures on policyholders

While we’ve dodged a bullet with Hurricane Irene, today Florida is in a precarious position. Despite the fact the state’s largest insurer is financially unsound, most believe we will be able to repair the damage from the next storm and rebuild our communities as we’ve done before. Unfortunately, that is not the case, and instead …
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Monday’s letters: U.S. catastrophe fund a bad idea

The Times is wrong to support a national catastrophe fund. Although the idea looks appealing on the surface, a national catastrophe fund simply cannot work as its proponents say it will.

2011 Hurricane Season Arrives

The 2011 Atlantic Hurricane season is officially underway, and with it comes the annual concerns for Florida and other coastal states.  In the insurance industry, we tend to focus on the economic effects of hurricanes–  the design of insurers’ reinsurance programs, the impact on Citizens Property Insurance Corporation and its reliance on assessments, and the …
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Will tornadoes fuel support for national catastrophe insurance?

Do the tornado outbreaks this year prove that the Midwest is just as prone to disasters as states like Florida with its hurricanes and California with its earthquakes? Will insurers scale back their risk in other parts of the country as they have done in Florida?

Differences in Property Legislation Remain at Session’s Midpoint

As we have now reached the midpoint of the 2011 legislative, some of the key elements of this year’s property insurance legislation still differ in significant ways between the House and Senate versions.  Property legislation tends to go down to the wire each year, and this year looks like it will be no exception. Some …
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Office of Insurance Regulation Releases PML Report

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has released its Annual Report of Aggregate Net Probable Maximum Losses, Financing Options and Potential Assessments.  The report describes the potential impact of 50-year, 100-year and 250-year events on the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF) and Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (Citizens). Events ranging from a 50-year storm to …
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Limited Apportionment Company Petition Available

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation has released the form by which insurers may seek limited apportionment company status for 2011.  In cooperation with the Office of Insurance Regulation, Citizens has informed insurers they must submit their requests to the OIR on or before March 31, 2011.  To qualify as a limited apportionment company, an insurer must …
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Insurer Suit Against Cat Fund Dismissed For Not Exhausting Administrative Remedies

Sunshine State Insurance Company’s suit in Leon County Circuit Court that sought declaratory and injunctive relief against the State Board of Administration (SBA) has been dismissed because the insurer failed to exhaust its administrative remedies.  The lawsuit related to loss reimbursement in connection with the SBA’s Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (Cat Fund) Reimbursement Contract for …
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FHCF Pursues Changes to Records Retention Requirements

The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund is scheduled to hold a hearing today on proposed rules that would incorporate changes to its data reporting and retention requirements.  The various forms insurers must use to report losses to the FHCF and the information they must maintain for audits are set forth in, or incorporated into, administrative rules.  …
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Regulatory Reform Transition Team Releases Summary Document

The regulatory reform transition team assembled by Governor-elect Rick Scott has released a document summarizing some of the key elements that will guide the Governor’s administration in the coming months and years.  The summary asserts that Florida’s regulatory system in general has lost touch with its strategic purpose and has a culture of imposing barriers rather …
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Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund to Revise Reporting Rules

The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund on December 17, 2010 proposed amendments to administrative rules adopting its exposure and loss reporting forms.  The proposed revisons would make a series of changes to the FHCF data call, to which insurers respond each year providing the characteristics of their in-force portfolios.  In addition, the proposed rules would amend …
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No hurricanes, so why are homeowners getting hammered on insurance?

Cecil Pearce: Private reinsurance not Florida's real challenge

The recently published articles related to reinsurance misrepresent the very real challenges confronting our great state. The Florida Insurance Council (FIC) is the state’s largest company trade association and its members and other affiliated insurers protect hundreds of thousands of Florida homes.

OIR Hosts Property Insurance Symposium

At the end of the recent NAIC conference in Orlando, the Office of Insurance Regulation held a symposium on the state of Florida’s property insurance market.  The session recapped many of the known concerns about the current market, including the role of sinkholes, re-opened hurricane claims, and public adjusters in driving up insurers losses and …
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