Democrats urge DeSantis to investigate why state didn’t share critical insurance study

Democratic lawmakers are calling on Gov. Ron DeSantis and House Speaker Daniel Perez to investigate a state report uncovered by the Herald/Times that showed that insurance companies diverted billions of dollars to their parent companies and affiliates even as the industry was ailing and the companies were losing money.

House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, cited the Herald/Times story in calling on DeSantis to convene a statewide grand jury and for Perez to form a new committee to investigate the report and why lawmakers didn’t receive it.

“We must know what happened, who knew what when, and why this information was concealed from us,” Driskell wrote.

The Herald/Times reported last week on a 2022 state report that found that insurance companies were diverting billions of dollars to affiliate companies at the start of the homeowners insurance crisis.

The study found that between 2017 and 2019, most insurance companies reported a collective net loss of $432 million, justifying big rate increases.

At the same time, their affiliate companies reported a net income of $1.8 billion. Insurers also spent $680 million on dividends to shareholders during those three years.

The Herald/Times requested the report in November 2022, but the Office of Insurance Regulation did not turn over the executive summary until December 2024.

The report was never previously released publicly and was not shared with lawmakers ahead of two emergency legislative sessions in 2022 to address the state’s imploding homeowners insurance market. Lawmakers ultimately made it harder to sue insurance companies.

Some lawmakers at the time questioned what role insurers’ use of affiliate companies had in the crisis.

“For years now, Floridians have been struggling under this insurance crisis and now we find out these companies were using loopholes to quietly move billions of dollars in profits and our own insurance regulators knew, did nothing, and did not tell us,” Driskell said in a statement. “This is outrageous and the people of Florida need answers.”

Spokespeople for DeSantis and Perez did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Office of Insurance Regulation said the study was not a complete picture of the homeowners insurance market, but said it showed that its recent efforts to get more information about, and oversight of, insurers’ affiliates was warranted.

It was not given to lawmakers because it was “not a formal examination report,” the office said in a statement earlier this month.

“Our office does not release every internal analysis of companies to the Legislature,” the office said.

The office paid a contractor $150,000 to produce the study, which has never been repeated since.

The state has long tolerated insurers’ use of affiliate companies to lure investors to one of the nation’s riskiest homeowners insurance markets.

Insurers’ profits are capped by state regulators at about 4.5%. But companies set up webs of sister and parent companies that charge the insurer fees for services, such as claims-handling, that can be much greater than what those services cost.

Once the money leaves the insurance company, it’s no longer available to pay claims and no longer under the oversight of state regulators.

It can also leave the insurers financially weaker. Excessive fees to affiliates have been repeatedly cited as a reason why companies go insolvent.

The author of the study concluded that 19 of 30 Florida-based insurance companies had financial agreements with affiliates that were “not fair and reasonable,” a term that is not defined in state law. Regulators asked to define it to include the “actual cost” of the services, but lawmakers in 2023 refused to do so.

The office is asking lawmakers to define it again this year.

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