For three decades, Florida has offered insurance companies a highly effective, performance-based tax credit that has resulted in tens of thousands of good jobs being created or imported to our state. Not only does this credit bolster our state’s economy in a transparent, accountable way, it also helps ensure insurance rates for Floridians stay as…
“The prospect that a national rating firm might downgrade Florida insurance companies because of rising costs linked to assignment of benefits agreements has lit a fire under advocates of reforming those contracts.” READ MORE.
TALLAHASSEE An Ohio insurance-rating company has warned that recent court rulings and skyrocketing losses from water-damage claims have created an “uncertain operating environment” for Florida’s property insurers and that it will downgrade the financial stability of 10 to 15 Florida-based companies, potentially threatening the solvency of thousands of homeowners policies. Demotech, Inc., a company which…
Palm Beach Post – August 30, 2016 State-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is looking for a 9 percent increase from Palm Beach County homeowners – and an average 6.8 percent statewide – even though there hasn’t been a hurricane in more than 10 years. The reason has nothing to do with the ravages of nature.…
Palm Beach Post I recently attended a forum hosted by Florida’s Insurance Consumer Advocate Sha’Ron James in Boca Raton to discuss the explosion in insurance claims related to water damage. During the event, multiple speakers talked about problems associated with Assignment of Benefits (AOB), and how it is harming the insurance market and increasing rates…
Sun Sentinel Ron Hurtibise Some property insurance companies are not taking on new business in ZIP codes with high claims rates in South Florida and canceling or deciding not to renew customers in high-risk areas. The action is a result of rising water damage claims in the region, the same problem that is leading to…
Citizens Board of Governors has approved recommended rates for 2017 that equal an average rate increase of nearly 7 percent statewide. The company said the increase is a necessary response to rising non-weather water losses and assignment of benefit (AOB) abuse that is now affecting all regions of the state. By unanimous vote, board members…
By Jim Saunders The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE — Pointing to a “crisis” in costly water-damage claims, the Citizens Property Insurance Board of Governors on Wednesday unanimously approved a proposed 6.8 percent statewide rate increase. The proposal would have varying effects for customers of the state-backed insurer, with some homeowners seeing premiums go up…
Ron Hurtibise – Sun Sentinel The arguments were familiar at a daylong forum in Boca Raton attended by 150 players in Florida’s homeowner insurance rate crisis. But unlike their usual methods of venting over the past four years — legislative hearings in Tallahassee, websites, letters to the editor — the opposing sides listened to each…
Charles Elmore – Palm Beach Post The CEO of one of Florida’s 10 biggest property insurers told a forum in Boca Raton Tuesday that inflated water-damage claims are “morally wrong” and hurt all consumers by raising rates, while an attorney accused insurers of crying wolf about the latest “crisis” that serves their own needs. More…