Citizens Property Insurance Corp. will reduce its business after Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky approved 410,628 policy takeout requests for personal and commercial lines, as per Florida Department of Insurance documents, according to AM Best report.
Although the takeout requests exceed 400,000, the actual number of offers made historically remains lower
The insurance office confirmed the takeout request total does not represent the actual number of policies each company would remove but declined to comment further.
Top 5 largest U.S. insurers of homeowners multiperil insurance in Florida, based on direct premiums written, were:
- Citizens Property Insurance with an 18.57% market share,
- Universal Insurance Holdings Group with 8.47%,
- State Farm Group with 6.88%,
- Florida Peninsula Group with 4.88%,
- Tower Hill Group with 4.35%.
Manatee Insurance Exchange requested the largest takeout, covering over 81,000 policies, including 75,000 residential multiperil, 2,000 commercial nonresidential wind-only, and 1,000 commercial nonresidential multiperil.
Slide Insurance sought the second-largest takeout, aiming to assume 75,000 residential multiperil policies and 600 commercial residential multiperil policies.
Attempts to gain further comments from Slide and Manatee were unsuccessful.
Other participating companies in this round include Orion 180 Select with 26,128 policies, Florida Peninsula Insurance with 35,000 residential policies, Typtap Insurance with 25,000 residential multiperil, Southern Oak Insurance with 45,000 residential multiperil and 5,000 residential wind-only, Monarch National Insurance with 30,000 residential multiperil, Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance with 24,000 residential multiperil and 1,000 residential wind-only, and American Integrity Insurance of Florida with 65,880 residential multiperil.
Condo Owners Reciprocal requested 1,000 commercial multiperil and 1,000 commercial residential wind-only policies.
To take a policy out, a carrier must offer replacement coverage priced no more than 20% above what Citizens charged the policyholder. Carrier offers will indicate the deadline for policyholders to decide. Policies without a registered choice will be assigned to the private-market company with the lowest estimated premium.
Policies eligible to stay with Citizens must register that decision. Policies without registered decisions will have coverage assigned to a private-market carrier, as per Citizens’ depopulation FAQ.
There is no longer a 30-day post-assumption period for policyholders to return to Citizens; all transfers will be final.
Commercial nonresidential policies with a private-market offer are ineligible to stay with Citizens.
As of August 2, Citizens’ website shows it has 1.2 million policies in force, and Peltier noted the carrier is adding about 5,000 policies each week. Citizens recently requested a 13.9% increase for personal multiperil policies and a 10.9% increase for commercial policies.
by Steve Hallo, senior associate editor, BestWire
