AM Best: Florida Property Writers Challenged Even Without A Hurricane

In this episode of ^AMBestTV, Michelle Baurkot, director, and Chris Draghi, senior financial analyst, both of AM Best, said that Florida writers struggled to turn a 2019 underwriting profit even with the absence of a major hurricane. Click on http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=ambfloridareport720 to view the entire program.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Florida's personal property insurers faced an uphill battle dealing with a number of threats and weakened results. Draghi spoke about what challenges Florida property insurers are facing as it pertains to the shifting reinsurance market.

“Insurers are facing a hardening reinsurance market that began last year and escalated this year, with some reports predicting a continuation in the near term,” said Dragi. “Those placing new reinsurance programs at the June renewal season have largely faced significant double-digit rate increases. Insurers are challenged to protect profits with higher costs of reinsurance dampening potential margins. Companies are faced with complex decisions in an effort to maintain effective catastrophe coverage that appropriately protects capital positions.”

Baurkot highlighted the extent that insurers have been impacted by the pandemic.

“Florida-domiciled personal property insurers were largely well-positioned for this pandemic. The lines of business predominantly written were relatively unaffected as far as coverage is concerned, given their focus on homeowners, fire and allied lines. While some writers did diversify into smaller commercial lines, it represents a smaller piece of the book and many products have exclusionary language. Therefore, the loss impact to insurers is not expected to be significant.”

To access the related market segment report, titled, “Multiple Threats Flank the Florida Property Insurance Market,” please visit http://www3.ambest.com/bestweek/purchase.asp?record_code=298867.

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^AM BestTV covers exclusive AM Best and insurance industry information and reports, targeted topics and key developments in the insurance, reinsurance and related sectors daily. Sign up for alerts of episodes at www.ambest.com/multimedia/ambtvsignup.html. View ^AM BestTV episodes at www.ambest.tv.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

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