Insurance companies and their allies lamented Friday that state lawmakers neared the end of their session Friday without addressing water-damage claims they say are inflating costs. “Even without a hurricane making landfall, property insurance rates are set to skyrocket,” benefitting “a small group of greedy vendors and their lawyers,” said a statement from the Florida [...]
With the 2016 Session coming to a close, the Florida legislature has failed to pass a meaningful solution to the assignment of benefits (AOB) crisis that is now rapidly spinning out of control. Organized and carried out by a handful of vendors and lawyers, this kickback-driven lawsuit-for-profit scheme is already punishing homeowners with higher rates, [...]
If you are a customer of state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and have to file a claim, you might find yourself facing a question typically associated with a politician embroiled in scandal: What did you know, and when did you know it? Read more from the Sun-Sentinel here
Florida, land of the nation’s costliest home insurance, has reached a new era in early 2016. State-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is no longer the company with the most policies. Read more from the Palm Beach Post here
Recently, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin M. McCarty announced his resignation. Our association applauds Commissioner McCarty for his leadership in guiding the state’s insurance market back to stability after the storms of 2004 and 2005. His work to help fix the mess of Florida’s out-of-control sinkhole claims was also particularly impactful to our state. After back-to-back-to-back [...]
More than a dozen Florida real estate, construction and insurance groups announced Tuesday that they are teaming up to push for homeowners’ insurance reform in the 2016 Legislative Session. The Consumer Protection Coalition seeks to curb a practice known as “assignment of benefits,” where owners sign away their insurance policy to a third party who [...]
A broad-based group of business leaders, consumer advocates, real estate agents, construction contractors, insurance agents and insurance trade groups announced today they have formed the Consumer Protection Coalition and are pushing for reforms to end Assignment of Benefits (AOB) abuse on its new web platform-FightFraud.Today. The Consumer Protection Coalition is devoted to protecting consumers by [...]
Kevin McCarty, who helped guide Florida's fragile insurance market in the wake of eight hurricanes a decade ago, announced Tuesday that he is resigning as the state's insurance commissioner, the Associated Press reported. Read more here
Below is an AOB opinion piece penned by Steve Pociask of the American Consumer Institute. It was published online by Forbes. By some accounts, Florida has the highest homeowner's insurance rates in the country and rates keep rising, despite not having a major hurricane in the last decade. The culprit - a concentration of non-weather [...]
It was another busy year for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR). From conducting the annual property/casualty data call and subsequent stress test of Florida property insurers, to working on the depopulation efforts of Citizens, to calling out the National Flood Insurance Program on Florida’s “unfair” flood insurance rates, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty [...]