As reported by the Gainesville Sun: Mark Albritton was able to knock $245 off his homeowner's insurance bill last year after a home inspection showed he was eligible for a wind mitigation discount. So he was dismayed to get a renewal notice from State Farm recently for more than the original amount to insure his [...]
The Office of Insurance Regulation has endured many attacks regarding its solvency review for homeowners insurance companies and for measures taken by the office prior to a placing a company into receivership — most recently from Eli Lehrer of the Heartland Institute. Mr. Lehrer mentions he is concerned that “insurance rates are still sky high,” [...]
Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty recently discussed Florida's biggest insurance issues, including rising rates, the national catastrophe fund, sinkholes and PIP Fraud. Read the entire story here
The Florida Cabinet met on August 10, 2010, during which it considered various insurance-related matters. Following is a brief summary of those items and the corresponding discussions that took place during the meeting. Florida Office of Insurance Regulation Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (“OIR”) Deputy Commissioner Belinda Miller presented the following items for consideration by the Cabinet members, who assumed their role as the Financial Services Commission (“FSC”) for this portion of the agenda: […]
Florida's top insurance regulator vowed to do more financial reviews of the state's insurers like the ones his office performed at the start of the year. Read the entire story here
The financial strength rating of State Farm Florida has been downgraded by A.M. Best Co. several days before the insurer begins non-renewing policies under a previous agreement with the state to keep it in Florida. Read the entire story here
According to National Underwriter, the House leadership pulled a bill off of the floor before a vote could be taken on legislation that would add windstorm coverage to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The bill, H.R. 1264, introduced by Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., could still be taken up again at any time, but for the [...]
As Florida's housing market continued its struggle early last year, custom builder Bobby Alvarez realized it was time to differentiate his company. Demand was rapidly shrinking for the multi-million-dollar, 40,000-square-foot mansions the 28-year veteran of the Tampa building industry is known for. Read the entire story here
At its meeting today, July 19, 2010, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation’s (“Citizens”) Actuarial and Underwriting Committee (“Committee”) unanimously approved an average statewide rate increase of zero for its 2011 commercial residential multi-peril (“CRM”) rate filings, inasmuch as the AIR v.12 model produced a negative 6.6 percent overall indication. However, once approved, Citizens plans to rebalance the zero rate using the AIR v.12 data to account for rate decreases, some of which include the southeast Florida coastal areas of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. […]
According to the St. Pete Times, Authorities indicted 33 suspects in the Miami area, accused of charging Medicare for about $140 million in various scams Federal authorities said Friday they are conducting the largest Medicare fraud bust ever in five different states and arrested dozens of suspects accused in scams totaling $251 million. Read the [...]