Palm Beach Post – Charles Elmore
After years of jettisoning customers, Florida’s last-resort insurer expects to get bigger in 2017 — returning to more than half a million policies.
“We’ve entered a different stage,” Citizens Property Insurance Corp. president Barry Gilway told the company’s board in a meeting Wednesday. “There’s very little interest in depopulation.”
Depopulation is Citizens-speak for helping customers find their way to private insurers, part of the state-run company’s mission. But as Florida’s 11-year hurricane-free streak came to an end in 2016 with Hermine and Matthew, several private companies have blamed inflated non-storm claims as the main reason they are shunning new business, particularly in South Florida.
