Insured
A post-storm assessment of the state's performance during Irma reflects mostly strengths.
The storm's aftermath revealed another strength - a property insurance market that - a quarter-century after Hurricane Andrew shattered it - is healthy and growing. It's been a longtime coming, and the process has vindicated policies meant to restore the private market.
Five years ago, state-run
Bottom line: When Irma hit, Citizens had shrunk to a third of its 2012 size, with only about 450,000 policyholders and
That should leave Citizens with a healthy
Gilway says Irma was a "hugely significant storm," but "a far more manageable event than it would have been had we not gone through depopulation."
More good news: Neither Gilway nor Neal expects
The biggest cost driver in the insurance market, in fact, has nothing to do with Irma or reinsurance rates. It's the escalating "assignment of benefits" catastrophe with its nexus in southeast
Insurance rates had been falling until around 2012-13, when a cabal of home repair companies, plai.jpgfs attorneys and private insurance adjusters began running amok in the region. They convince policyholders with water leaks or other damage to sign over the rights to the insurance payments to repair home damage. The repair company gins up an inflated bill, and if the insurer doesn't pay, the repair company sues in the policyholder's name. It's a lucrative little game for the repair companies and plai.jpgfs attorneys if it works; ifit doesn't, the policyholder can end up with a lien on his house as the repair company fights it out in court with the insurance company.
Well before Irma struck, some companies in south
Meanwhile, early this year, ratings agency Demotech threatened to downgrade at least 10 to 15 Florida insurers because of the uncertain environment caused by assignment of benefits lawsuits. The rating matters because it plays a role in how much insurers pay for reinsurance - and therefore how much they charge policyholders. Most companies doing business in south
Consumers, for their part, should understand that any increases in their premiums in coming months won't be because of Irma or "greedy insurance companies," but rather from costs imposed by the misuse of assignment of benefits.
As for lawmakers, they should understand that their failure to shut down assignment of benefits abuse is imperiling a growing, competitive industry. Republican leaders who are so averse to imposing taxes for other purposes have no business allowing the plai.jpgfs Bar to impose one of their own in the form of unnecessary insurance rate increases on consumers.
Reassured For Life’s Education-First Approach now Includes Expanded Website
Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc. Continues Their Expansion Into the Dallas/Fort Worth Area in Texas
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News