Through four hurricanes, industry maintained its policy of profits
BY MATT REED
FLORIDA TODAY
Image by Jeff Parker, FLORIDA TODAY
IMMENSE CASH FLOW
$25.7 billion
Floridians have paid a total of $25.7 billion in premiums for homeowner’s insurance since Hurricane Andrew, and billions more to insure businesses, cars and boats.
$12.4 BILLION
As of the last week in November, insurers had paid $12.4 billion in claims for all hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes since 1992, a number they predict could grow to as much as $20 billion.
Meanwhile, the same companies made hundreds of millions of dollars by investing your premiums in bonds.
RELATED ARTICLES
• Quotes from insurance companies on third quarter earnings
• Who really insures your home?
• Poll: Eliminate double deductibles
• Gary and Bonnie Tighe: ‘Logging calls and waiting for answers.’
You might think, with thousands of blue tarps still covering your neighbors’ roofs, that Florida insurers are buckling under record losses.
You might have assumed — if you’ve dickered with an adjuster or fretted over your windstorm deductible — that property insurers must double their rates to survive.
Or that insurers will drop policies and leave the state. Or that a state fund must cover a bigger share of disaster claims for companies to remain solvent.
But none of that is true.
In fact, Florida’s major property insurers managed to earn profits during the period that included hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, securities filings and earnings reports show.
Even as the industry announced record losses and called for higher rates, company executives told analysts they were strong enough to pay claims and still make money. And that’s before any changes.
Now, as the Florida Legislature prepares for a special session on hurricane relief, a FLORIDA TODAY/Gannett Co. examination of the insurance industry and its millions of policyholders has found:
PROFITABLE COMPANIES
Of the dozen insurers consistently ranked among the biggest in Florida, all seven publicly traded companies reported profits in the third quarter, records show. Those earnings reflect all of their estimated catastrophe losses, including those to be paid in the fourth quarter.
The others are “mutual” companies owned by policyholders, and don’t make such disclosures. But data they shared with analysts show their likely maximum losses for the worst hurricane catastrophe would amount to 10 percent to 30 percent of their reserves.
SHREWD ACCOUNTING.
Some major insurers have formed Florida subsidiaries used to better track premiums and losses — and to lobby the state for rate increases. On that level, the picture looks bleak. But the Florida companies pay only a fraction of their hurricane claims. Much, if not most, money comes through parent companies, which have collected hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends and other payments from Florida for years.
WORRIED HOMEOWNERS.
More than one-third of all Floridians suffered hurricane damage to homes and businesses this year, a statewide poll for FLORIDA TODAY/Gannett Co. found.
And they will pay just as much for damage out of their pockets: roughly $17 billion, officials say. Meanwhile, four out of five people who filed claims say they’re concerned their insurance companies will drop their policies. More than half haven’t received settlement checks, the poll found.
Jeff Kupec just assumed the insurance companies were strapped.
He has stayed for months with his retired parents in a FEMA trailer in the front yard of their wind-blasted house in Indian Harbour Beach. The home — deemed unsafe by inspectors — needs new ceilings, walls and soffits.
His parents, Allstate Corp. policyholders for 22 years, are trying to be patient with their insurer. But Kupec says its offers aren’t nearly enough, and he has argued with adjusters.
“Whenever I spoke to Allstate’s advocate, he got on the phone and he had the audacity to tell me how badly the insurance companies are hurting,” Kupec said.
“I just asked him to take a look around at how the people’s lives and homes have been damaged. It was almost offensive to hear what he had to say.”
Although Florida’s storms pinched insurers’ bottom lines, neither the market conditions nor the weather appeared to have crippled major insurers such as Allstate, St. Paul Travelers and American International Group. Florida’s two largest insurers, State Farm and Allstate, did not respond to several requests for interviews about their companies’ financial condition.
But at USAA company headquarters in San Antonio, a spokesman for Florida’s third-largest home insurer said policyholders should find security in its ability to endure catastrophic losses, pay claims and still set aside money for the future. USAA expects claims to hit $700 million; yet, two rating companies have described its strength as “superior” since the hurricanes.
“It’s not as if we weren’t affected,” USAA spokesman Paul Berry said, adding, “Because we’re owned by our members, we have to operate in a way that we can survive four storms and even more.”
‘We Like Florida’
After the storm, the numbers still looked solid for Allstate Corp. On Oct. 21, chief executive Ed Liddy fielded questions from industry analysts during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call.
“Does the storm activity impact your decision to buy back stock in the near term?” a Merrill Lynch analyst asked.
“No. We’re generating good amounts of free cash flow,” Liddy said. “We have more than enough capital to pay the claims and repurchase our shares.”
His thoughts on the Florida homeowners market?
“We like Florida,” he told an analyst from Deutsche Bank. But for Allstate to ensure good returns for stockholders, the state would need to OK higher rates and pay a greater share of hurricane claims, Liddy said.
Three weeks later, Allstate told the news media that the hurricanes had wiped out a decade of profits in Florida. The company would stop selling homeowners policies until the Legislature decided whether to share more of the risk, Liddy said.
It’s a proven posture for Florida’s insurance industry: plead hardship to state politicians while still earning profits, or “surpluses” in the case of mutual insurers.
Winning While Losing
Insurance companies of all sizes and market niches earned profits in the third quarter. The list includes big players in Florida such as A.I.G., Prudential and Chubb Corp. as well as smaller companies such as Safeco, Infinity Property & Casualty and Selective Insurance Group.
All demonstrated a common way insurers stay in the black: by earning interest on investments. The American insurance industry owns at least $2 trillion in bonds.
“They make money on the cash flow,” said David Nye, a University of Florida business and finance professor and director of the Florida Insurance Research Center.
Consumers pay cash for premiums at the beginning of their policy periods, he explained.
“That cash doesn’t sit in a mattress somewhere. It’s invested,” Nye said.
Although some top insurers wouldn’t discuss their balance sheets, their lobbyists in Tallahassee stressed how claims have squeezed their Florida subsidiaries.
Insurance companies depend on state officials to grant rate increases or improve access to public catastrophe money. To make their cases, they have spent millions on lobbyists, campaign contributions and food and entertainment for lawmakers, the FLORIDA TODAY/Gannett Co. examination found.
To be sure, the hurricanes weakened the Florida subsidiaries. But a review of analysts’ reports found that insurers’ own business strategies before the storms determined their fortunes at least as much as the marketplace or state policies:
Some companies, such as Clarendon, planned to rely on “reinsurance” policies they bought from their parents or other private firms to cover catastrophic losses. A few, like Allstate, instead counted heavily on the state-run catastrophe fund, a pool they have paid into to hedge their losses. The fund paid out less than executives expected, the quirky result of four storms striking, not one killer hurricane.
Some subsidiaries including First Floridian (owned by St. Paul Travelers) started with major investments from their parents — to help weather disaster — and consistently turned profits. Others, such as State Farm Florida, never had enough capital to pay catastrope claims on their own and struggled to control high costs for years.
Regulating the risk business
Now, Kupec’s parents and their neighbors are among those who will pay the price for change in state homeowners’ insurance rules. Insurers estimate they will pay $17.5 billion in claims for Florida’s 2004 hurricanes.
“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, about that,” Kupec said. “But that’s not my folks’ fault, that’s not my fault, that’s not my neighbors’ fault. These folks have paid for insurance, they’ve paid for the promise of security … to know that when a catastrophe of biblical proportions happens, that they’re going to be all right, and their homes and their lives are going to be put back in order.”
Homeowners may no longer have to pay deductibles for each hurricane, a proposal before lawmakers. But millions of homeowners could pay higher premiums and special assessments to replenish Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-run insurer of last resort. Thousands could be “non-renewed” by their companies and forced to pay much higher rates to Citizens.
Legislators’ mission in the coming special session will be to help consumers in ways that don’t dampen profits for Florida insurance companies.
State Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, one of the state’s deans of insurance issues, cautioned against taking a hard line against insurers. Scaring them off would hurt the real estate market because mortgage companies require insurance, he said.
“They don’t have to provide insurance here,” Posey said. “There are other, more profitable states.”
It’s a common thought, repeated by lawmakers, lobbyists and residents.
But insurance company CEOs have told investment analysts they want to stay in Florida because that’s where the people and money are. It’s the same with disaster-prone Texas, California and, since September 2001, New York.
And Bermuda-based reinsurance companies will grow richer from tax-free investment income while counting on a major loss every 10-15 years, records show. Florida fits their business model, hurricanes and all.
“Insurance companies are in the business of taking risks. That’s what their job is,” Nye said. “To totally withdraw from a market, that’s a pretty dramatic thing. Companies don’t like to do that.”
Immense Cash Flow
Floridians have paid a total of $25.7 billion in premiums for homeowner’s insurance since Hurricane Andrew, and billions more to insure businesses, cars and boats. As of the last week in November, insurers had paid $12.4 billion in claims for all hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes since 1992, a number they predict could grow to as much as $20 billion.
Meanwhile, the same companies made hundreds of millions of dollars by investing your premiums in bonds. About our sources
These articles comply with our policy of not using anonymous sources.
Major documents included U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, A.M. Best Co. ratings reports and transcripts of quarterly earnings conference calls from Fair Disclosure Inc.
Interviews included insurance company officers, industry experts, lawmakers and policy holders from around Florida.
FLORIDA TODAY/Gannett Co. solicited residents’ suggestions for the legislative session on its Websites.
when you mention AllState and State Farm, 2 of the main companies with separate Florida only companies- you are telling us they had record profits or AllState and State Farm’s parent company. I know State Farm of Florida was just downgraded by AM Best to a B+ rating, which doesn’t exactly support your story.
Reconsider the article, and then consider the following;
Subject: Insurer’s Claim Underpayment and Profit Schemes – InsuranceJournal
Posted On: June 19, 2005, 1:22 pm CDT
Posted By: Roger Poe
Comment:
Insurers-Agents-Brokers can sell homeowners replacement (Reconstruction) cost valued policies, while at the same time, insurance adjusters are incorrectly estimating (hurricane, flood, hail, fire, earthquake, windstorm, etc.) claims with NEW construction cost values…a common difference of 35-50% of the base dollar value of the loss.
Other claim settlement values being left out (undisclosed), that have been pre-paid for in a homeowners monthly premium payment, is primary-general-sub contractor overhead and profit values.
Whether a contractor is used of not, a claims loss value has common 20-49% overhead and profit value. Sub-total line values on an insurer’s adjuster’s “estimate” should openly show, or be able to prove, those inherent claim loss values. Many times they do not, to the ignorance-detriment of the policyholder.
Gallagher’s brother Doug stands a better chance of getting elected governor (Doug ran for the Senate last year on the “I’m not a lawyer and I’m not a politician” platform), which is slim to none.
Charlie Crist will be the next Florida governor. What he will do with Gallagher is up in the air (George W. Bush will probably push for Gallagher to be protected, in some fashion). Who knows where Jeb is off to. Will Jeb back Charlie or his appointee “Tom”?
I was insured with this trash Co.I never file a claim, even a hurricane claim. I decided to bare the cost myself. Then I get canceled, screw you Allstate, drop the policies, raise rates, gain the cash, and kiss my A–. I WILL FILE A CLAIM NOW.
I think that the insurance companies are going to make a killing on these three storms. FL may never get hit like that again, but the people that live in this state will be paying for years to come. Even the ones that are not living on the coast. I think it is a shame that they can just cancell you and then when you go elsewhere, your premium is tripled. All in all these insurance companies are going to get more than a measely 28%. It’s a shame that this is being allowed. That’s right insurance companies, hit them when they are down.
the state would be much better off approving these increases rather than dealing with all the non-renewals of property insurance. Let the crisis begin.
The problem is that Florida has not properly addressed coverage for the peril of “Hurricane”. The problem is not wind and hail. The problem is hurricane. Residual markets have been developed to deal with the perils of flood, earthquake and terrorism. Why not hurricane? Perhaps Florida should have studied the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund before developing “Citizens” and implementing more and more regulation. Under the circumstances Floridians should be prepared to pay more.
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Insurers still gained while Floridians lost.
Through four hurricanes, industry maintained its policy of profits
BY MATT REED
FLORIDA TODAY
Image by Jeff Parker, FLORIDA TODAY
IMMENSE CASH FLOW
$25.7 billion
Floridians have paid a total of $25.7 billion in premiums for homeowner’s insurance since Hurricane Andrew, and billions more to insure businesses, cars and boats.
$12.4 BILLION
As of the last week in November, insurers had paid $12.4 billion in claims for all hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes since 1992, a number they predict could grow to as much as $20 billion.
Meanwhile, the same companies made hundreds of millions of dollars by investing your premiums in bonds.
RELATED ARTICLES
• Quotes from insurance companies on third quarter earnings
• Who really insures your home?
• Poll: Eliminate double deductibles
• Gary and Bonnie Tighe: ‘Logging calls and waiting for answers.’
You might think, with thousands of blue tarps still covering your neighbors’ roofs, that Florida insurers are buckling under record losses.
You might have assumed — if you’ve dickered with an adjuster or fretted over your windstorm deductible — that property insurers must double their rates to survive.
Or that insurers will drop policies and leave the state. Or that a state fund must cover a bigger share of disaster claims for companies to remain solvent.
But none of that is true.
In fact, Florida’s major property insurers managed to earn profits during the period that included hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, securities filings and earnings reports show.
Even as the industry announced record losses and called for higher rates, company executives told analysts they were strong enough to pay claims and still make money. And that’s before any changes.
Now, as the Florida Legislature prepares for a special session on hurricane relief, a FLORIDA TODAY/Gannett Co. examination of the insurance industry and its millions of policyholders has found:
PROFITABLE COMPANIES
Of the dozen insurers consistently ranked among the biggest in Florida, all seven publicly traded companies reported profits in the third quarter, records show. Those earnings reflect all of their estimated catastrophe losses, including those to be paid in the fourth quarter.
The others are “mutual” companies owned by policyholders, and don’t make such disclosures. But data they shared with analysts show their likely maximum losses for the worst hurricane catastrophe would amount to 10 percent to 30 percent of their reserves.
SHREWD ACCOUNTING.
Some major insurers have formed Florida subsidiaries used to better track premiums and losses — and to lobby the state for rate increases. On that level, the picture looks bleak. But the Florida companies pay only a fraction of their hurricane claims. Much, if not most, money comes through parent companies, which have collected hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends and other payments from Florida for years.
WORRIED HOMEOWNERS.
More than one-third of all Floridians suffered hurricane damage to homes and businesses this year, a statewide poll for FLORIDA TODAY/Gannett Co. found.
And they will pay just as much for damage out of their pockets: roughly $17 billion, officials say. Meanwhile, four out of five people who filed claims say they’re concerned their insurance companies will drop their policies. More than half haven’t received settlement checks, the poll found.
Jeff Kupec just assumed the insurance companies were strapped.
He has stayed for months with his retired parents in a FEMA trailer in the front yard of their wind-blasted house in Indian Harbour Beach. The home — deemed unsafe by inspectors — needs new ceilings, walls and soffits.
His parents, Allstate Corp. policyholders for 22 years, are trying to be patient with their insurer. But Kupec says its offers aren’t nearly enough, and he has argued with adjusters.
“Whenever I spoke to Allstate’s advocate, he got on the phone and he had the audacity to tell me how badly the insurance companies are hurting,” Kupec said.
“I just asked him to take a look around at how the people’s lives and homes have been damaged. It was almost offensive to hear what he had to say.”
Although Florida’s storms pinched insurers’ bottom lines, neither the market conditions nor the weather appeared to have crippled major insurers such as Allstate, St. Paul Travelers and American International Group. Florida’s two largest insurers, State Farm and Allstate, did not respond to several requests for interviews about their companies’ financial condition.
But at USAA company headquarters in San Antonio, a spokesman for Florida’s third-largest home insurer said policyholders should find security in its ability to endure catastrophic losses, pay claims and still set aside money for the future. USAA expects claims to hit $700 million; yet, two rating companies have described its strength as “superior” since the hurricanes.
“It’s not as if we weren’t affected,” USAA spokesman Paul Berry said, adding, “Because we’re owned by our members, we have to operate in a way that we can survive four storms and even more.”
‘We Like Florida’
After the storm, the numbers still looked solid for Allstate Corp. On Oct. 21, chief executive Ed Liddy fielded questions from industry analysts during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call.
“Does the storm activity impact your decision to buy back stock in the near term?” a Merrill Lynch analyst asked.
“No. We’re generating good amounts of free cash flow,” Liddy said. “We have more than enough capital to pay the claims and repurchase our shares.”
His thoughts on the Florida homeowners market?
“We like Florida,” he told an analyst from Deutsche Bank. But for Allstate to ensure good returns for stockholders, the state would need to OK higher rates and pay a greater share of hurricane claims, Liddy said.
Three weeks later, Allstate told the news media that the hurricanes had wiped out a decade of profits in Florida. The company would stop selling homeowners policies until the Legislature decided whether to share more of the risk, Liddy said.
It’s a proven posture for Florida’s insurance industry: plead hardship to state politicians while still earning profits, or “surpluses” in the case of mutual insurers.
Winning While Losing
Insurance companies of all sizes and market niches earned profits in the third quarter. The list includes big players in Florida such as A.I.G., Prudential and Chubb Corp. as well as smaller companies such as Safeco, Infinity Property & Casualty and Selective Insurance Group.
All demonstrated a common way insurers stay in the black: by earning interest on investments. The American insurance industry owns at least $2 trillion in bonds.
“They make money on the cash flow,” said David Nye, a University of Florida business and finance professor and director of the Florida Insurance Research Center.
Consumers pay cash for premiums at the beginning of their policy periods, he explained.
“That cash doesn’t sit in a mattress somewhere. It’s invested,” Nye said.
Although some top insurers wouldn’t discuss their balance sheets, their lobbyists in Tallahassee stressed how claims have squeezed their Florida subsidiaries.
Insurance companies depend on state officials to grant rate increases or improve access to public catastrophe money. To make their cases, they have spent millions on lobbyists, campaign contributions and food and entertainment for lawmakers, the FLORIDA TODAY/Gannett Co. examination found.
To be sure, the hurricanes weakened the Florida subsidiaries. But a review of analysts’ reports found that insurers’ own business strategies before the storms determined their fortunes at least as much as the marketplace or state policies:
Some companies, such as Clarendon, planned to rely on “reinsurance” policies they bought from their parents or other private firms to cover catastrophic losses. A few, like Allstate, instead counted heavily on the state-run catastrophe fund, a pool they have paid into to hedge their losses. The fund paid out less than executives expected, the quirky result of four storms striking, not one killer hurricane.
Some subsidiaries including First Floridian (owned by St. Paul Travelers) started with major investments from their parents — to help weather disaster — and consistently turned profits. Others, such as State Farm Florida, never had enough capital to pay catastrope claims on their own and struggled to control high costs for years.
Regulating the risk business
Now, Kupec’s parents and their neighbors are among those who will pay the price for change in state homeowners’ insurance rules. Insurers estimate they will pay $17.5 billion in claims for Florida’s 2004 hurricanes.
“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, about that,” Kupec said. “But that’s not my folks’ fault, that’s not my fault, that’s not my neighbors’ fault. These folks have paid for insurance, they’ve paid for the promise of security … to know that when a catastrophe of biblical proportions happens, that they’re going to be all right, and their homes and their lives are going to be put back in order.”
Homeowners may no longer have to pay deductibles for each hurricane, a proposal before lawmakers. But millions of homeowners could pay higher premiums and special assessments to replenish Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-run insurer of last resort. Thousands could be “non-renewed” by their companies and forced to pay much higher rates to Citizens.
Legislators’ mission in the coming special session will be to help consumers in ways that don’t dampen profits for Florida insurance companies.
State Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, one of the state’s deans of insurance issues, cautioned against taking a hard line against insurers. Scaring them off would hurt the real estate market because mortgage companies require insurance, he said.
“They don’t have to provide insurance here,” Posey said. “There are other, more profitable states.”
It’s a common thought, repeated by lawmakers, lobbyists and residents.
But insurance company CEOs have told investment analysts they want to stay in Florida because that’s where the people and money are. It’s the same with disaster-prone Texas, California and, since September 2001, New York.
And Bermuda-based reinsurance companies will grow richer from tax-free investment income while counting on a major loss every 10-15 years, records show. Florida fits their business model, hurricanes and all.
“Insurance companies are in the business of taking risks. That’s what their job is,” Nye said. “To totally withdraw from a market, that’s a pretty dramatic thing. Companies don’t like to do that.”
Immense Cash Flow
Floridians have paid a total of $25.7 billion in premiums for homeowner’s insurance since Hurricane Andrew, and billions more to insure businesses, cars and boats. As of the last week in November, insurers had paid $12.4 billion in claims for all hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes since 1992, a number they predict could grow to as much as $20 billion.
Meanwhile, the same companies made hundreds of millions of dollars by investing your premiums in bonds. About our sources
These articles comply with our policy of not using anonymous sources.
Major documents included U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, A.M. Best Co. ratings reports and transcripts of quarterly earnings conference calls from Fair Disclosure Inc.
Interviews included insurance company officers, industry experts, lawmakers and policy holders from around Florida.
FLORIDA TODAY/Gannett Co. solicited residents’ suggestions for the legislative session on its Websites.
Contact Reed at 242-3631 or mreed@brevard.gannett.com.
http://www.floridatoday.com/insurancestorm/stories/hurricanestoryN1209PEOPLEPROFIT0.htm
when you mention AllState and State Farm, 2 of the main companies with separate Florida only companies- you are telling us they had record profits or AllState and State Farm’s parent company. I know State Farm of Florida was just downgraded by AM Best to a B+ rating, which doesn’t exactly support your story.
6-23-2005
Dear “Concerned”,
You appear to be well informed.
Reconsider the article, and then consider the following;
Subject: Insurer’s Claim Underpayment and Profit Schemes – InsuranceJournal
Posted On: June 19, 2005, 1:22 pm CDT
Posted By: Roger Poe
Comment:
Insurers-Agents-Brokers can sell homeowners replacement (Reconstruction) cost valued policies, while at the same time, insurance adjusters are incorrectly estimating (hurricane, flood, hail, fire, earthquake, windstorm, etc.) claims with NEW construction cost values…a common difference of 35-50% of the base dollar value of the loss.
http://www.femainfo.us/Links/041405sk.pdf
http://www.femainfo.us
Other claim settlement values being left out (undisclosed), that have been pre-paid for in a homeowners monthly premium payment, is primary-general-sub contractor overhead and profit values.
Whether a contractor is used of not, a claims loss value has common 20-49% overhead and profit value. Sub-total line values on an insurer’s adjuster’s “estimate” should openly show, or be able to prove, those inherent claim loss values. Many times they do not, to the ignorance-detriment of the policyholder.
http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/commish/bulletins/b-0045-8.html
Please, report underpayment schemes to local and extended law enforcement, and governmental agencies.
We also track suspected insurer fraud, so feel free to contact us at–therdp5@yahoo.com or rogerpoe@acnet.net
Roger Poe
Reconstruction Specialist
rogerpoe@acnet.net
Thanks for the idiot post.
GP
Gallagher’s brother Doug stands a better chance of getting elected governor (Doug ran for the Senate last year on the “I’m not a lawyer and I’m not a politician” platform), which is slim to none.
Charlie Crist will be the next Florida governor. What he will do with Gallagher is up in the air (George W. Bush will probably push for Gallagher to be protected, in some fashion). Who knows where Jeb is off to. Will Jeb back Charlie or his appointee “Tom”?
I was insured with this trash Co.I never file a claim, even a hurricane claim. I decided to bare the cost myself. Then I get canceled, screw you Allstate, drop the policies, raise rates, gain the cash, and kiss my A–. I WILL FILE A CLAIM NOW.
I wonder if ‘ol Bob meant by “baring” his cost he was going to let it all hang out of if he meant to bear his cost, ie: shoulder it himself ?
I think that the insurance companies are going to make a killing on these three storms. FL may never get hit like that again, but the people that live in this state will be paying for years to come. Even the ones that are not living on the coast. I think it is a shame that they can just cancell you and then when you go elsewhere, your premium is tripled. All in all these insurance companies are going to get more than a measely 28%. It’s a shame that this is being allowed. That’s right insurance companies, hit them when they are down.
the state would be much better off approving these increases rather than dealing with all the non-renewals of property insurance. Let the crisis begin.
The problem is that Florida has not properly addressed coverage for the peril of “Hurricane”. The problem is not wind and hail. The problem is hurricane. Residual markets have been developed to deal with the perils of flood, earthquake and terrorism. Why not hurricane? Perhaps Florida should have studied the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund before developing “Citizens” and implementing more and more regulation. Under the circumstances Floridians should be prepared to pay more.