Good News for Florida Home Insurance
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) is reporting that the home insurance market is continuing to strengthen as more property and casualty carriers are entering the state. This, of course, is good news for Florida homeowners, as competition generally means lower prices.
An eighth new insurance carrier has entered the Florida market in recent months. The new companies include Ovation Home Insurance Exchange, Manatee Insurance Exchange, Condo Owners Reciprocal Exchange, Orange Insurance Exchange, Orion 180 Select Insurance Company, Orion 180 Insurance Company, Mainsail Insurance Company, and Tailrow Insurance Company.
"Florida's insurance market continues to strengthen, showing signs recent legislation is having positive impacts to the property insurance market,” Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky said. "OIR remains steadfast in our efforts to stabilize Florida's insurance market by implementing legislative reforms and recruiting more insurers to the state. We look forward to continuing this work and promoting a competitive market for policyholders."
Citizens Property Insurance, the state-owned entity known as the insurer of last resort, is showing improvement in its financial strength. Citizen’s surplus increased 17.5% from 2023. Its income was $746 billion in 2023 compared to a loss of 2.2 billion in 2022. The goal is to depopulate Citizens. So far this year, OIR has approved 13 companies to assume more than 354,000 policies from Citizens. In 2023, more than 275,000 policies were assumed from Citizens by private companies reducing the state-run entity’s exposure by $113 billion.
The OIR reported that Florida’s domestic property insurance companies, when combined with the investments of those companies showed a net positive income in 2023 which represented a big improvement from losing a about a billion dollars in each of the past three consecutive years. This was the first profit since 2016.
The OIR said that 2023 end-of-year data “shows a much lower degree of uncertainty in the property insurance market, Yaworsky added.
In addition to new companies entering the market, OIR approved the acquisition of Florida domestic property and casualty reciprocal insurer, Trusted Resource Underwriters Exchange.
The agency said the acquisition would allow the existing company to grow its footprint in the state and expand its underwriting capacity.
"As a result of OIR’s approval of the acquisition, more than $1.25 billion of capital is being invested into Florida’s property and casualty insurance market," the agency said.
In conclusion, we can say confidently that the states’ goal of privatizing the Florida home insurance market is heading in the right direction.