THE POLICYHOLDER'S ADVOCATE®
It is hard to imagine any Florida property insurers not making a killing in 2009. With no hurricanes or significant tropical storms, the most financially devastating peril was eliminated. Yet, over 100 Florida residential property insurers reported losses.…
Continue Reading Are Wind Mitigation Credits Killing Profits of Florida Insurers?
My appointment by Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist to the Citizens Mission Review Task Force afforded me the opportunity to learn about and have a small voice in the Florida insurance marketplace. At War With the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes is a significant academic work which our regulators and legislators must read and understand to fully appreciate the complexity of the property insurance issues in Florida and elsewhere. I wish it had been published while I was serving on that Committee. The historic lessons and current conclusions contained in this book are important to everybody living and working along Coastal areas.…
Florida Senator Mike Fasano, a public servant ever vigilant about consumers of regulated industries getting ripped by the amounts they have to pay for mandated services and products, forwarded a recent news article, “Group Backs Florida Property Insurance Rate Hike.” When the Florida legislators and Governor were concerned about the severe escalation of property insurance premiums following the 2004 and 2005 storm seasons, they froze the rates charged by Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. Governor Charlie Crist ran for elected office on a platform of preventing the severe escalation of such prices. At that time, many of Florida’s legislators ran their political campaigns suggesting they were no friend of the insurance industry that was raising rates in an extraordinary manner. While Governor Crist proved he is a man of his word by vetoing legislation which would have allowed major insurers to charge whatever they want, only a few elected legislators seem to remember the promises they made to their electorate. Associated Industries supports those politicians that are more concerned about insurers profits than the promises to their constituents—except when elections are around the corner.…
A lawsuit was filed by three public adjusting firms seeking to enjoin the State of Florida from enforcing the 48 hour solicitation ban and the fee caps public adjusters may charge to policyholders. The mastermind behind the lawsuit is lawyer turned public adjuster, Pat Catania of East Coast Public Adjusters. The lawsuit is not a surprise. Many public adjusters have been complaining that their business has been significantly impacted by these laws as insurance restoration companies act as surrogate public adjusters since the 48 Hour Ban does not prohibit insurance contractors from actively soliciting work from policyholders immediately after a loss.…
The Florida Consumer Action Network (FCAN) has urged Florida Governor Charlie Crist to veto recently passed legislation that would allow insurers to raise rates without approval by the Office of Insurance Regulation. FCAN is probably Florida’s largest consumer action group. The Bradenton Herald quoted foes of the legislation who refer to the bill as "the State Farm bailout bill." I agree. …
Continue Reading Florida Consumer Action Network Urges Veto of Unregulated Rate Hikes
Numerous newspaper articles have discussed this session’s bills which impact the insurance industry. The anti-consumer bill, which provides for deregulation of insurance rates, passed. I expect Governor Crist will veto that bill as was previously reported.…
Continue Reading Florida Insurance Legislation is Over for 2009–Maybe
State Farm’s announcement to leave the Florida property insurance market has plenty of media attention. It is obvious that State Farm’s view of its actions is far different than that of its customers.…
Continue Reading State Farm Has Agents Spread Propaganda and Bullies North Carolina
Karen Clark and Company has recently published findings indicating that the insurance industry’s revised hurricane damage models have not performed well over the past three years. Their conclusion is:
"Three years into the application of near term hurricane models, the model predictions have not performed well. While all three major catastrophe modeling companies predicted significantly
…
The Governor, Charlie Crist, who appointed me to the Citizens Mission Review Task Force has gotten married to a beautiful woman. While I am certain he was planning their honeymoon this past week, I was pouring over insurance rate data, market share analysis, and a reinsurance presentation regarding Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. I bet his work was a whole lot more fun.…
Continue Reading The Ongoing Work Of The Citizens Task Force
