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 [...]

Based upon adoption of the Climate Risk Disclosure Survey ("Survey") by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners ("NAIC") earlier this year, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has notified certain Florida domestic insurers that, although participation in the Survey is voluntary, it must be completed by July 30, 2010.  The NAIC has set up a [...]

Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw testified this morning, July 14, 2010, before the U.S. House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee in opposition to the taxing of reinsurance between affiliated entities. “When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled,” Mr. Shaw said in his written testimony to illustrate his opposition to Subcommittee Chairman Richard E. Neal’s (D-MA) legislation (H.R. 3424). The bill would deny deductions for reinsurance premiums to related foreign entities that exceed an industry average by line of business. […]

The Coalition for Competitive Insurance Rates today applauded Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw's statements in opposition to Rep. Richard Neal's (D-MA) plan to tax foreign-based insurers and reinsurers. Read more here

The U.S. House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee ("Subcommittee") will hold a hearing on the issue of taxation of reinsurance between affiliated entities tomorrow, July 14, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. In addition to the issue of reinsurance between affiliated entities the hearing will also allow for consideration of recent proposals that would impact [...]

Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") advised on July 7, 2010 that it has withdrawn its rating on Citizens Property Insurance Corporation's ("Citizens") Senior Secured Bonds Series 2010A-4 Federally Taxable (LIBOR Floating Rate Notes), inasmuch as Citizens had planned to issue four sub-series of bonds, but ended up issuing only three. The A-4 bonds were therefore not [...]