AM Best Revises Outlooks to Positive for Florida Farm Bureau Group’s Members

Business Wire

OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
AM Best has revised the outlooks to positive from stable and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings of “bbb+” (Good) of Florida Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company and its fully reinsured subsidiary, Florida Farm Bureau General Insurance Company, collectively referred to as Florida Farm Bureau Group. Both companies are domiciled in Gainesville, FL.

The Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect Florida Farm Bureau Group’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong, as well as its marginal operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM).

The revised outlooks to positive from stable reflect improvement in Florida Farm Bureau Group’s operating results, owed largely to better rate adequacy across its core lines of business along with management’s key underwriting actions, which improved the quality of risks. In response to several years of volatile underwriting results, Florida Farm Bureau Group implemented significant rate increases, as well as deductible adjustments, non-renewals of certain classes of business, stricter underwriting guidelines and additional reinsurance coverage, all of which were aimed at improving profitability. These actions, along with significant regulatory and legislative changes in the Florida property market resulted in a favorable trend starting in 2024 when the group recorded its first underwriting gain in several years. In 2025, further benefiting from a lack of hurricane activity in the state of Florida and various reforms, this trend continued as evidenced by a sub-80s combined ratio and an underwriting profit nearing $60 million, which contributed to considerable policyholders’ surplus growth. Overall, operating performance trends remain favorable through year-to-date 2026 and AM Best expects that Florida Farm Bureau Group will remain profitable over the near term, despite its inherent exposure to natural catastrophes, ultimately resulting in key operating performance metrics that fall closer in alignment with the adequate assessment level.

The ratings additionally reflect Florida Farm Bureau Group’s strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), in tandem with its improved underwriting and reserve leverage, as well as a recent turnaround in loss reserve development trends, all of which support its strong balance sheet strength assessment. Florida Farm Bureau Group maintains a limited business profile, owed primarily to its single state geographic concentration and product concentration as a predominate personal property writer in the state of Florida. Still, the business profile benefits from its exclusive agency business model. ERM capabilities are aligned with the group’s risk profile, and a comprehensive reinsurance program is maintained, which mitigates tail risk and reduces the net probable maximum loss of a hurricane event to less than 10% of policyholders’ surplus. Lastly, Florida Farm Bureau Group continues to benefit from the implicit and explicit support provided by its parent, Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s Performance Assessments, Best’s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.

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 London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.