News & Updates

Insurance

Governor DeSantis Announces Insurance Deductible Support

Governor DeSantis Announces Insurance Deductible Support

Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Florida Housing Finance Corporation (FHFC) will be making $5 million in disaster recovery funds available to local housing partners to help Floridians with their hurricane deductibles. The assistance will be available in Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Hardee, Lee, and Sarasota counties. Affected individuals may apply through FHFC’s local housing partners. FHFC […]

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Citizens Policy Count Continues to Grow as Ian Approaches

Citizens Policy Count Continues to Grow as Ian Approaches

The policy count of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation reached 1,064,000 as of the end of last week as Ian began to organize. This represented an increase of 9,000 policies over the prior week’s policy count. The recent policy count underscores the substantial growth Citizens has seen as a result of problems plaguing the Florida market […]

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Lawsuits Continue to Plague Property Market

Lawsuits Continue to Plague Property Market

The Florida property insurance market continues to experience reduced availability and increasing prices due to extraordinary litigation levels.  Widely-discussed sources show that Florida has nearly 80% of the nation’s property insurance litigation despite having less than ten percent of the countrywide claims.  Stated differently, Florida had about 100,000 lawsuits last year, which vastly outpaced the […]

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Citizens Rate Disparity Likely to Grow

Citizens Rate Disparity Likely to Grow

The disparity between Citizens Property Insurance Corporation’s rates and those in the admitted market is likely to grow.  Premiums have increased significantly in the admitted market in recent years, driven by well-documented problems with inflated, represented and litigated claims.  These concerns have been compounded by broader inflationary pressures in the economy, including supply chain disruptions […]

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Lawsuits Target Special Session Reforms

Lawsuits Target Special Session Reforms

In late May, the Florida legislature passed several measures intended to address continuing concerns with Florida’s residential property insurance market.  Lawmakers commented that the new laws will not provide quick fixes; instead, the benefits might take 12-18 months to materialize. Unfortunately, this estimate might prove to be optimistic as two lawsuits have been filed challenging […]

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Citizens Property Insurance Policy Count Continues to Increase

Citizens Property Insurance Policy Count Continues to Increase

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation continues to add policies at an alarming pace at the onset of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season.  Citizens recently hit a weekly total of 12,000 new policies as its total policy count approaches 900,000.  With Citizens being the largest residential insurer in Florida, its current policy count is much higher than […]

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Effective Dates Key to Special Session Reforms

Effective Dates Key to Special Session Reforms

The Florida legislature has released its multi-faceted proposals for reforming Florida’s property insurance market.  The proposed legislation includes temporarily expanding available capacity from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, incentivizing loss mitigation through windstorm protective devices, increasing regulatory oversight for distressed insurers, and curbing Florida’s litigation crisis by rebalancing attorneys’ fee incentives. To effectively address Florida’s […]

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Special Session Proposals Address Property Market Concerns

Special Session Proposals Address Property Market Concerns

The Florida House of Representatives and Senate have released their proposals for next week’s special session on property insurance reform.  The special session follows last month’s call from Governor Ron DeSantis for a special session dealing with the crisis in Florida’s residential property insurance market. Reinsurance Protection Although their proposals are subject to change when […]

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Governor’s Proclamation Outlines Scope of Session

Governor’s Proclamation Outlines Scope of Session

Governor Ron DeSantis’ proclamation declaring a special session on property insurance identifies its scope and provides insight into the upcoming debate.  The proclamation specifies the special session will consider (a) property insurance, (b) reinsurance, (c) changes to the Florida Building Code to improve the affordability of property insurance, (d) the Office of Insurance Regulation, (e) […]

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Florida Market Needs Lasting Reform

Florida Market Needs Lasting Reform

The residential insurance market in Florida has experienced years of deterioration resulting in decreased availability of private market options, reductions in coverage and rising insurance premiums.  As has been well established by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and others, Florida never really had a sinkhole problem, a mold problem, or a water damage problem…. […]

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