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 […]
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 […]
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…. […]
Effective January 1, 2022, insurers using credit reports or credit scoring for underwriting or rating purposes must provide a new notice to consumers. The notice must state: The Department of Financial Services offers free financial literacy programs to assist you with insurance-related questions, including how credit works and how credit scores are calculated. To learn […]
The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF) projects that will be able to satisfy its $17 billion in single-season reimbursement obligations if called upon. The FHCF releases its estimated claims-paying capacity in May and October of each year. In its October estimate, the FHCF anticipates it would reach the $17 billion single season cap through $11.3 […]
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) will hold a public hearing at 10:00 a.m. on October 14 to receive input regarding the National Council on Compensation Insurance’s (NCCI’s) recent rate filing proposing an average decrease of 4.9%. According to NCCI, in 2020 the workers’ compensation insurance industry posted its fourth consecutive year of underwriting […]
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) recently indicated it anticipates initiating rulemaking by November 1 with respect to the new closed claim reporting requirement in SB 76 (Chapter Law 2021-77). Adopted in the 2021 legislative session, SB 76 added a new subsection (11) to Section 624.424 governing insurers’ submissions of annual statements. The new […]
Citizens Property Insurance Corporation’s president Barry Gilway recently projected the organization’s policy count could reach between 1 million and 1.3 million policies in 2022. Its policy count has been increasing steadily since late last year as adverse market conditions have eroded capital and reduced insurers’ willingness to write policies in several areas of the state. […]
Observers of Florida’s personal auto market are well aware of the legislative debates in recent years over the future of Florida’s no-fault Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance laws. Proponents of PIP have pointed to it as a relatively fast, no-fault basis of ensure basic coverage amounts are in place for injuries arising from auto accidents. […]
The Federal Insurance Office (FIO) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) has issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public input on climate-related financial risks and their impact on the insurance industry. The RFI requests written comments from interested parties on or before November 15, 2021. As background, the FIO points out that […]
