Florida’s Citizens Launches Program to Shift Policies

Florida’s largest insurer is launching a new program to shift policies over to other companies.

The state-created Citizens Property Insurance on Monday will start requiring new customers to use a property insurance clearinghouse.

The program requires insurance agents to look at offers from four private insurers before allowing someone to purchase a Citizens policy.

A customer is ineligible for Citizens if one of the insurers charges premiums that are within 15 percent of Citizens rates.

State legislators authorized the clearinghouse to help reduce the number of people insured by Citizens. Citizens has more than 1 million policyholders.

Other insurers will be added to the clearinghouse later this year. Citizens plans by the middle of 2014 to require that current customers go through the clearinghouse before their policies are renewed.