The Florida Property Insurance Saga

This is a forum for people interested in Florida's property insurance market.
Why? Because it's a jungle out there. And this jungle is taking a sizeable chunk of our money every year. But we hope it'll be there when we need it. Like say, this summer.
Very briefly, I covered insurance for the St. Petersburg Times until last fall, when I took the company's early retirement plan. But once you've learned the business, it's tough to walk away. Kind of like the mafia.
I don't accept money from anyone.
This is a forum. A place to share information and opinions.
Welcome!

Tom Zucco
St. Petersburg Florida

Jan 27 - The news: State Farm announces it will no longer write homeowners insurance in Florida.
Behind the news: Anyone who's been following the industry knew this was coming. SF stopped writing new policies last year, and when the company asked for a 47 percent rate hike, that was the second shoe to drop.
There's no way SF expected to get that increase. Not with Gov. Charlie Crist standing guard over the Office of Insurance Regulation. "Good riddence,'' Crist said.
But when an administrative law judge (and commissioner Kevin McCarty) rejected the request, it gave SF an out. Literally.
Can't get the rate, can't write the business. Simple math.
But is anyone noticing a trend here?
Over the past several years, Allstate, Nationwide, State Farm, USAA and others have stopped writting new business in Florida. They're also culling policies in Mississippi, Louisiana., and coastal Texas. It's too much of a risk. especially now that the reserves of these companies could be - and probably are - at the mercy of a tanking stock and bond market.
Never mind global warming and predictions of more and stronger hurricanes.
Back to Florida. Where will this leave the 900,000 people who have State Farm homeowner's insurance?
Some will land in Citizens, and some will sign with the little known rookie insurers. The ones with dubious ratings and reserves who weren't even licensed two years ago.
(Paul Newman to Robert Redford: "Who ARE those guys?")
We do know this: Florida has gone from a state with four or five major insurers, to one with 50 or more, many of whom we know little about.
Comforting, isn't it?
Hurricane season begins in four months.
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