Tuesday, November 10, 2015

CITIZENS CONTINUES TO SHED POLICYHOLDERS

CITIZENS CONTINUES TO SHED POLICYHOLDERS
Through September of 205, Citizens had approved over 1 million take out policies, and actually 172,000 had been removed by the "take out" process. This brought the number to over 1,000,000 million policies removed from citizens and placed back into the private market in the last four years.
Citizens Property Insurance was formed when the Insurance market in Florida effectively collapsed with the goal of providing insurance for those that could not obtain property insurance through the private market. Since no major companies were willing to take the risk, small private Florida-based carriers were formed and these companies have assumed the risk.
These companies are typically not as well funded, have not been around long, and also typically have small claims dept that function by using independent adjusters. However, on the positive, most of them have reinsurance and a philosophy of "spreading the risk". That is, they spread their policyholders throughout Florida using computer models to avoid having too any policies in any one area. The theory behind this is to avoid having to many policyholders in any one area hit by disaster.
On Thursday, November 5, the Florida Dept of Insurance made the following announcement for 2016:
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (Office) has approved the removal of up to 127,266 personal residential policies and 3,268 commercial residential/non-residential polices from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (Citizens). Today’s announcement represents the first take-out for 2016 and the following five companies have been approved to participate:
· Anchor Property & Casualty Insurance Company – approved to remove up to 20,000 personal residential policies (16,030 Personal Lines Account and 3,970 Coastal Account)
· Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Company – approved to remove up to 55,000 personal residential policies (35,000 Personal Lines Account and 20,000 Coastal Account) and up to 1,500 commercial residential policies (1,300 Commercial Lines Account and 200 Coastal Account)
· Safepoint Insurance Company – approved to remove up to 20,000 personal residential policies (12,000 Personal Lines Account and 8,000 Coastal Account)
· Southern Oak Insurance Company – approved to remove up to 15,000 personal residential policies (10,000 Personal Lines Account and 5,000 Coastal Account)
· Weston Insurance Company – approved to remove up to 17,266 personal residential policies (all Coastal Account), up to 719 commercial residential policies (Commercial Lines Account) and up to 1,049 commercial non-residential policies (Commercial Lines Account)
If you are a policyholder in Pasco or Hernando county and receive a take out letter, you need to seek advice from a licensed agent familiar with the unique problems presented by being a property owner in this area. Call us and we will ask you a series of questions and determine what is in your best interest.
Bauknight Insurance operates two Counties in Florida, Bauknight Insurance, Hudson, FL (727) 863-5641 and Bauknight Insurance of Hernando 10488 Spring Hill Drive, Spring Hill, Fl 34607 (352)-686-0612

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