Citizens policies drop below 1 million

The number of Floridians insured by Citizens Property Insurance Corp. fell below 1 million last month and is expected to drop to 907,000 by the end of the year.

Citizens had 987,744 policies in force as of Friday, Dec. 6, according to the state-backed insurer's website.

Jeremy Pope, chief administrative officer of Citizens, said Tuesday that 237,323 personal-line policies and 1,527 commercial-line policies were shifted out of Citizens to private insurers in October, as part of what is known as a "depopulation" program. Pope told the Citizens' Exposure Reduction Committee Tuesday that 12 insurance carriers participated in depopulation efforts between October and December, including five new entrants to the market this year.

"These are definitely telling signs of an active market continuing on the right path, and the market's resiliency is especially notable given the active storm season we just recently experienced throughout the state with (hurricanes) Debby, Helene and Milton," Pope said. Another 343,000 policies could be assumed by other insurance carriers and taken out of Citizens by February, Pope said.

The depopulation program is a key strategy as state leaders try to shrink Citizens, which in recent years became Florida's largest property insurer because of financial problems in the private market.

Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort, reached as many as 1.412 million policies last year before seeing the number reduced because of earlier depopulation rounds. State leaders want to minimize the number of policies in Citizens, at least in part because of financial risks if the state gets hit by a major hurricane or multiple hurricanes.

If Citizens wouldn't have enough money to pay claims, policyholders throughout the state — including possibly non-Citizens policyholders — could have to pay what are known as "assessments" to cover the costs.