Citizens Insurance adds policies in past week
TALLAHASSEE - After a large drop the previous week, the number of Floridians insured by Citizens Property Insurance Corp. inched up by about 2,300 policies last week.
Citizens had 1,037,811 policies as of Friday, up from 1,035,534 policies a week earlier but down from 1,271,907 policies two weeks earlier, according to data posted on its website. The large drop during the previous week coincided with nine private insurers having regulatory approval to assume Citizens policies as part of what is known as a "depopulation" program.
The depopulation program is a key strategy as state leaders try to shrink Citizens, which in recent years became Florida's largest property insurer because of financial problems in the private market.
Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort, reached as many as 1.412 million policies last year before seeing the number reduced because of earlier depopulation rounds. State leaders want to minimize the number of policies in Citizens, at least in part because of financial risks if the state gets hit by a major hurricane or multiple hurricanes.
If Citizens wouldn't have enough money to pay claims, policyholders throughout the state — including possibly non-Citizens policyholders — could have to pay what are known as "assessments" to cover the costs.