If the politicians could step outside of campaign mode for a few minutes, Florida would be great. First- Citizens rates are not high enough, even though they are the among the highest, let real insurance companies get rates up what is expected to be 50% over last year and Citizens will still be high. Be careful when you suggest that non homestead properties would be subject to anything different. Those folks already pay WAY more in taxes and they will loose any incentive to continue to come here, Arizona looks good also. Seasonal homes really did not have a higher loss ratio than full time homes, and just because you are homesteaded does not mean you are here year round, it just mean the house in Ohio is in your wifes name and this Florida home is in the husbands name. Will this surcharge apply to rental properties?
I suppose the $1 million cap was set aside since a god chunk of the elected officials live in those beach front homes and they have NO options for coverage is Citizens dumps them. Keep working on it.
Ever notice how some mobile homes look untouched while their neighbors is rolled up like yesterday\’s newspaper? Sometimes it\’s tornados but the rest of the time it is due to improper/inadequate tiedowns. My Dad had a 15% loss ratio on his M.H. business because he believed in field underwriting. What say you?
I say NO agent can do field underwriting on mobile homes today, because they do not make enough money on them to write them, and do inspections, and photos and cost estimators and warehouse the paperwork and files for the companies, and handle all the service work and mortgage changes and mailing address changes twice a year for seasonal clients, and then rewrite them when the customer does not make the payments, this is before you account for the staff labor, cost of computers, training, gas and auto expenses, and all the other expenses involved. As companies force the agent to do more and more and they pay less and less, they get worse and worse business. I do not condone this activity but it is the truth. I had a 4% loss ratio on a $3 million book of mobile home business, now we make less than half of what we used to 5 years ago and we do EVERYTHING, the companies do nothing but collect the money, ask me if the loss ratio is as important to me as it was back then? Carriers bring alot of the problems on themselves. If they need a rate increase you better factor in the increase in agents commission as well, we can not do more work for less money or the companies will get less desirable business, and they usually don\’t inspect until claim time. Sad but true.
Thanks for the insight. The best businesses are run by people who have come up from the trenches. Maybe someday there will be an insurance company run by involved agents & adjusters who know how to get $10 for $1 spent.
The State realizes that standard carriers do not get adequate rate to write in Florida. Why? Because carriers cannot get a 50% rate increase approved by the State. Inadequate rate…..carriers pull out….agent rewrites in Citizens with a premium triple the expiring premium. Does this make sense to anyone?
You hit it right on the head. This is exactly what is happening, and it makes absolutely no sense. Citizens can increase rates at will, and assess at will, however the carriers are not allowed to adjust rates. For some reason, the politicians seem to want to hold onto the idiotic dream of price fixing in spite of it\’s dismal history in nearly every industry. Perhaps the surcharges will be what it takes to wake up the Florida Consumer that Citizens and the class warfare proposals are not the answer to the problems. Raise rates, and supply will increase.
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If the politicians could step outside of campaign mode for a few minutes, Florida would be great. First- Citizens rates are not high enough, even though they are the among the highest, let real insurance companies get rates up what is expected to be 50% over last year and Citizens will still be high. Be careful when you suggest that non homestead properties would be subject to anything different. Those folks already pay WAY more in taxes and they will loose any incentive to continue to come here, Arizona looks good also. Seasonal homes really did not have a higher loss ratio than full time homes, and just because you are homesteaded does not mean you are here year round, it just mean the house in Ohio is in your wifes name and this Florida home is in the husbands name. Will this surcharge apply to rental properties?
I suppose the $1 million cap was set aside since a god chunk of the elected officials live in those beach front homes and they have NO options for coverage is Citizens dumps them. Keep working on it.
Ever notice how some mobile homes look untouched while their neighbors is rolled up like yesterday\’s newspaper? Sometimes it\’s tornados but the rest of the time it is due to improper/inadequate tiedowns. My Dad had a 15% loss ratio on his M.H. business because he believed in field underwriting. What say you?
I say NO agent can do field underwriting on mobile homes today, because they do not make enough money on them to write them, and do inspections, and photos and cost estimators and warehouse the paperwork and files for the companies, and handle all the service work and mortgage changes and mailing address changes twice a year for seasonal clients, and then rewrite them when the customer does not make the payments, this is before you account for the staff labor, cost of computers, training, gas and auto expenses, and all the other expenses involved. As companies force the agent to do more and more and they pay less and less, they get worse and worse business. I do not condone this activity but it is the truth. I had a 4% loss ratio on a $3 million book of mobile home business, now we make less than half of what we used to 5 years ago and we do EVERYTHING, the companies do nothing but collect the money, ask me if the loss ratio is as important to me as it was back then? Carriers bring alot of the problems on themselves. If they need a rate increase you better factor in the increase in agents commission as well, we can not do more work for less money or the companies will get less desirable business, and they usually don\’t inspect until claim time. Sad but true.
Thanks for the insight. The best businesses are run by people who have come up from the trenches. Maybe someday there will be an insurance company run by involved agents & adjusters who know how to get $10 for $1 spent.
The State realizes that standard carriers do not get adequate rate to write in Florida. Why? Because carriers cannot get a 50% rate increase approved by the State. Inadequate rate…..carriers pull out….agent rewrites in Citizens with a premium triple the expiring premium. Does this make sense to anyone?
You hit it right on the head. This is exactly what is happening, and it makes absolutely no sense. Citizens can increase rates at will, and assess at will, however the carriers are not allowed to adjust rates. For some reason, the politicians seem to want to hold onto the idiotic dream of price fixing in spite of it\’s dismal history in nearly every industry. Perhaps the surcharges will be what it takes to wake up the Florida Consumer that Citizens and the class warfare proposals are not the answer to the problems. Raise rates, and supply will increase.