Running out of options for home insurance

In the last 7 weeks, 6 Florida homeowners insurance companies have told regulators they can’t continue writing coverage…5 have stopped totally and one is non-renewing over 50k, this is just beginning. How many more will pull back before the legislature puts for a comprehensive plan.

Here is a list ….

• Avatar Property & Casualty Insurance Company. St. Johns Insurance Co. was declared insolvent, Florida regulators have taken steps to begin liquidating Tampa-based Avatar Property & Casualty Insurance Co., making it the second carrier this year to falter and the sixth in the last 30 months.
• Lighthouse Insurance Company. “At this time, St. Johns Insurance has made the difficult decision to suspend all new business writing statewide as of Feb. 15, 2022,” the company said in a bulletin sent to its agents.
• St. John’s Insurance Company. On February 25, 2022, St. Johns Insurance Company (“St. Johns”) was ordered liquidated by the Second Judicial Circuit Court in Leon County, Florida. The Florida Department of Financial Services (“Department”) is the court-appointed Receiver of St. Johns.
• United Property & Casualty. United Insurance Holdings Corp. (UPC Insurance), the Florida-headquartered property and casualty (P&C) insurer, has officially ceased writing new homeowners business in the state, as of January 1^st, 2022. In a memo sent to agents, seen by Reinsurance News, the company cited high catastrophe losses from the 2020 storm season, rising reinsurance rates, and growing litigation costs as reasons for suspending new business.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, Florida’s insurance companies had $1.6 billion in underwriting losses in 2021. Florida’s insurance companies had $1.6 billion in underwriting losses last year. There’s much more than just roofing fraud causing rising premiums in 2022.

Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute if he would do business as an insurer in Florida, “Haha, a loaded question. Thank you. I have to compose myself for that.”

Friedlander operates out of northwest Florida but he feels the pain of the whole state.

“The state of homeowners insurance in Florida right now is in crisis, we are in serious crisis mode, where we’re on a trajectory that the private insurance market could collapse,” said Friedlander.

The Insurance Information Institute says only three out of 52 insurance companies in Florida actually made a profit last year.

Friedlander said, “every insurer is losing money, and they’re losing a lot of money.”

Those 52 insurance companies writing policies in Florida lost more than $1.6 billion.

This year, fewer insurance companies will write policies in Florida because of those losses.

That is forcing more homeowners to rely on Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state’s insurer of last resort.