Florida regulators approve insurers to take Citizens policies
TALLAHASSEE — Florida regulators this week approved proposals that would allow private insurers to take more than 400,000 policies from the state's Citizens Property Insurance Corp. in late October as the hurricane season starts to wind down.
Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky signed orders that would allow 10 carriers to assume up to 413,808 policies from Citizens as part of what is known as a "depopulation" program.
Based on past rounds of takeouts, the actual number of policies that will move from Citizens into the private market likely will be lower than the approved amounts. But the approvals would help shrink Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort but has become Florida's largest property insurer in recent years.
Yaworsky signed the orders Wednesday, a day before the state Office of Insurance Regulation held a hearing on a proposal by Citizens to pass along double-digit rate increases to customers in 2025. The proposed rate hikes and the depopulation program are both part of efforts to push policies into the private market.
During Thursday's rate hearing, Citizens President and CEO Tim Cerio presented information that showed regulators in 2023 and 2024 approved proposals by private insurers to assume up to 1 million policies. Of that amount, 407,643 policies had actually been assumed. The 1 million total did not include the approvals signed by Yaworsky this week.
The number of Citizens policies soared in recent years as private insurers dropped customers and raised rates because of financial problems. Citizens reached as many as 1.412 million policies last year and had nearly 1.229 million policies as of last week.
Citizens this summer has added thousands of policies a week as insurers have paused takeouts during the hurricane season, which started June 1. But Citizens officials have expressed confidence that the depopulation program will lead to a reduced number of policies late this year. Cerio said Thursday officials expect the total to drop below 1 million policies by the end of 2024. Hurricane season ends Nov. 30.
State leaders and Citizens officials have long wanted to shrink Citizens, at least in part to reduce financial risks if Florida gets hit by a hurricane or multiple hurricanes. If Citizens did not have enough money to pay claims after a storm, it could pass along extra charges known as "assessments" to policyholders throughout the state, including possibly non-Citizens policyholders.
Under the depopulation program, Citizens customers are required to accept offers of coverage from private insurers if the offers are within 20 percent of the cost of Citizens premiums. For example, if a homeowner received an offer of coverage from a private insurer that is 19 percent higher than the Citizens premium, the homeowner would have to accept it.
Yaworsky's orders this week, however, included barring private carriers from making offers that would be more than 40 percent higher than what policyholders would pay to renew policies with Citizens. The orders, posted on the Office of Insurance Regulation website, cited "potential harmful impacts to Florida policyholders" from offers higher than 40 percent.
The vast majority of proposals approved this week involve carriers assuming what are known as homeowners' multi-peril policies. But some proposals also included taking out wind-only policies, commercial residential policies and commercial non-residential policies. Commercial residential policies can include such things as condominium-association policies and apartment-building policies.
Manatee Insurance Exchange was approved to assume up to 81,000 policies, while Slide Insurance Co. was approved to assume up to 75,600 policies, and American Integrity Insurance Company of Florida was approved to assume up to 65,880, according to the orders.
Also, Southern Oak Insurance Co. was approved to assume up to 50,000 policies; Florida Peninsula Insurance Co. was approved to assume up to 35,000; Monarch National Insurance Co. was approved to assume up to 30,000; Orion180 Select Insurance Co. was approved to assume up to 26,128; and Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Co. and TypTap Insurance Co. were each approved to assume 25,000.
In addition, Condo Owners Reciprocal Exchange was approved to assume up to 200 commercial non-residential policies.
The takeouts are targeted for Oct. 22 and Oct. 29, depending on the insurer and policy type, according to the orders.