Florida Citizens CEO Named as President of Homeowners Choice P/C

The chief executive officer of Florida'sCitizens Property Insurance Corp. will be joining Homeowners Choice Inc. when he leaves the state's insurer of last resort in April.

Scott Wallace will make the transition shortly after leaving Citizens, which he is scheduled to do on April 6. Wallace will serve as president of Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Co., according to a written statement.

"Scott has extensive and wide-ranging experience in the insurance industry, including management of Florida's largest homeowners' insurance carrier," said Homeowners Choice Chief Executive Officer Paresh Patel. "We look forward to benefiting from his experience, professional affiliations and leadership capabilities."

Wallace has served at Citizens since 2006 and was appointed president in 2007. Wallace in January submitted his resignation to Citizens (Best's News Service, Jan. 10, 2012). Last week, Citizens named Tom Grady, the commissioner of Florida'sOffice of Financial Regulation, interim president (Best's News Service, March 7, 2012).

Homeowners Choice, which was founded in 2006, is relatively new to the Florida market. The company was heavily involved in taking policies out of Citizens in the years following its establishment, according to Citizens records. Since 2007, which is as far back as Citizens had records immediately available, Homeowners Choice took out about 115,000 policies. The company said they currently serve about 121,000 policyholders throughout Florida and take in about $227 million in annualized premiums.

Homeowners Choice in November acquired about 70,000 homeowners policies from HomeWise Insurance Co. and expanded its agency base by about 500 agents (Best's News Service, Nov. 10, 2011). HomeWise was ordered into liquidation on Nov. 18. A sister company of HomeWise, HomeWise Preferred Insurance Co. was ordered into liquidation on Nov. 4, according to the Florida Department of Financial Regulation.

Patel has been in the holding company's top spot since July following the resignation of Francis X. McCahill III, who left the company citing personal reasons (Best's News Service, July 1, 2011).

Homeowners Choice in December 2010, reported net income of $5.4 million, which was a decline from 2009's net income of $10.9 million. The company's 2011 year-end results were unavailable. Homeowners Choice did not respond to a request for comment.

Shares of Homeowners Choice (NASDAQ: HCII) on the morning of March 13, were trading at $12.25, down 3.54% from the previous close.

(By Michael Buck, senior associate editor, BestWeek: [email protected])