8 property insurers approved to enter the Florida market, commissioner says

Following legislative reforms designed to promote market stability, eight property and casualty insurers were approved to enter Florida’s insurance market, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation said in a news release.

Ovation Home Insurance Exchange, the most recent approval, joins Manatee Insurance Exchange, Condo Owners Reciprocal Exchange, Orange Insurance Exchange, Orion180 Select Insurance Company, Orion180 Insurance Company, Mainsail Insurance Company, and Tailrow Insurance Companies as newly approved property and casualty insurers.

"Florida's insurance market continues to strengthen, showing signs recent legislation is having positive impacts to the property insurance market," said Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky. "OIR remains steadfast in our efforts to stabilize Florida's insurance market by implementing legislative reforms and recruiting more insurers to the state. We look forward to continuing this work and promoting a competitive market for policyholders."

In addition to new companies entering the market, OIR approved the acquisition of Florida domestic property and casualty reciprocal insurer, Trusted Resource Underwriters Exchange, to allow the existing company to grow its footprint in the state and expand its underwriting capacity, the release said. As a result of OIR’s approval of the acquisition, more than $1.25 billion of capital is being invested into Florida’s property and casualty insurance market.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (Citizens) is showing improvement in their financial strength over the previous years. For instance, Citizens' surplus increased by approximately 17.5 percent from previous years and Citizens posted a net income in 2023 of $746 million compared to a loss of $2.2 billion in 2022. Additionally, Citizens' combined ratio improved from the previous year from 204.4 percent to 59.5 percent, the release said.

As the market continues to stabilize, OIR is seeing a continued interest from authorized insurers in the Citizens Depopulation program. In 2024, OIR has approved 13 companies to assume more than 354,000 policies from Citizens. In 2023, more than 275,000 policies were assumed from Citizens, reducing Citizen’s exposure by more than $113 billion. More information about policies assumed and exposure removed through the Citizens Depopulation program is available here.

Florida domestic company strength

In 2023, Florida domestic property insurance companies reported they produced a combined net underwriting that almost broke even, a dramatic improvement from losing over a billion dollars in the past three consecutive years. When combined with investments, these domestic carriers showed a net positive income in 2023 for the first time since 2016.

Insurers establish a loss reserve, which is the amount the insurer believes that claims will cost.

At periodic points in time, an insurer goes back and evaluates how much those claims actually cost and uses that information to inform reserves going forward. Year end 2023 data reported to OIR reflects a much lower degree of uncertainty in the property insurance market, as insurers reported lower loss reserve development, the release said.

From 2022 to 2023, Florida domestic insurers, including Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, have reported a 44.8 percent decrease from $772 million to $398 million in loss reserve development at the two year look-back period and a 28 percent decrease from $224 million to $161 million at the one year mark.

Additionally, the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund rates are decreasing for participating insurers by a statewide average of 7.38 percent. These rate decreases are in part based on modeled loss cost indications, even while exposure grows.