Regulators approve taking nearly 183,000 more
policies out of Citizens Property
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Article Courtesy of The Tampa Bay Times
By Jeff
Harrington
Published
November 1, 2014
The exodus of homeowners policies out of Citizens
Property Insurance continued Wednesday as state regulators approved
transferring up to 182,567 more policies to nine private insurers.
State-run Citizens, the insurer of last resort for those who cannot find
coverage on the open market, has been under pressure to push as many
policies as possible into the private marketplace.
One big incentive: If Citizens is overwhelmed by catastrophe claims
after a major hurricane, all Floridians with insurance could be on the
hook to bail it out.
The program has raised concern from some policyholders, however, given
that many of the "takeout" companies are untested and have been
criticized by some ratings experts as being undercapitalized. Florida
Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has insisted that all the companies
approved for takeout are financially strong and have adequate reserves.
Approved for taking Citizens' policies in the latest round are: Anchor
Property & Casualty Insurance; Avatar Property & Casualty Insurance;
Cypress Property & Casualty Insurance; Heritage Property & Casualty
Insurance; Mount Beacon Insurance; Prepared Insurance; Security First
Insurance; Southern Oak Insurance, and United Property & Casualty
Insurance.
Policyholders may opt to stay with Citizens if they object to their
takeout offer in writing.
The insurers can begin assuming policies starting Jan. 13 for personal
policies and Jan. 6 for commercial policies, marking the first takeouts
approved for 2015.
McCarty's office has approved more than 1.1 million policies for removal
from Citizens this year, and 127,550 policies have been taken out.
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