Regulators Approve Even More Takeouts from
Citizens Property - Including 50,000 to Newly Licensed Anchor
Property & Casualty
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Article Courtesy of The Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog
By Francisco
Garcia
Published
November 26, 2014
Another 182,000 insurance policies have been approved
by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (“OIR”) to be transferred
to private insurers, (commonly referred to as “takeout” companies), in
2015 as part of the state’s ongoing effort to reduce the number of
policies handled by Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. While it is
unlikely that all will be assumed from Citizens, (according to the OIR,
about 127,550 of the 1.1 million policies approved last year were
transferred), the effect of the mass assumption on Florida policyholders
should not be overlooked.
I recently wrote about the effect such takeouts may have on
policyholders and those assisting policyholder’s with their insurance
claims with respect to the more than two-thousand commercial residential
policies being taken out by Heritage Insurance. One of the most
important things to keep in mind is that losses which occur after a
certain date should be reported to the takeout company – not Citizens.
It is also important to read the Assumption Notice that is sent by the
takeout company carefully, which should explain the procedure one must
follow to opt-out of the assumption and keep your policy with Citizens.
The mass assumption of policies from Citizens has also raised some
serious concern from both policyholders and experts in the industry who
believe some of the takeout companies do not have the experience or
capital to handle all these claims. For example, included the list of
recently approved “takeout” companies is Anchor Property & Casualty
Insurance Company. The Bradenton-based insurance company only recently
became licensed by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation on October
28, 2014. Though Anchor reportedly has $35 million in capital, the
question is, will that be enough to handle the 50,000 policies it is
taking over and pay what it needs to make policyholders whole if a loss
occurs?
The other “takeout” companies approved by the Florida Office of
Insurance Regulation for 2015 include Avatar Property & Casualty
Insurance (up to 10,000 policies), Cypress Property & Casualty Insurance
(up to 23,000 policies), Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance (up to
20,500 policies), Mount Beacon Insurance (up to 38,485 policies),
Prepared Insurance (up to 20,000 policies), Security First Insurance (up
to 8,555 policies), Southern Oak Insurance (up to 10,000 policies) and
United Property & Casualty Insurance (up to 2,027 policies).
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