Insurancenewsnet.com | BestWire Service | October 4, 2010
In November, Florida residents will elect a new governor and chief financial officer. The question is how the new political leadership will affect the homeowners insurance market, which industry representatives have called difficult, challenging, and even stifling. The market in the Sunshine State, which has seen a crop of major insurers pull out of or scale back their presence in the state in recent years, hasn’t gotten much better, said William Stander, assistant vice president of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America in Tallahassee. “It is a market with few choices for consumers.” The largest homeowners insurer in Florida, State Farm, stopped writing new business in February 2008, citing the need to maintain financial stability in a state that had been battered by catastrophes in the preceding years. In fact, Florida accounted for 22% of all U.S. insured cat losses from 1980-2006 and since the start of 2004, underwriting losses exceeded premiums by about $6.7 billion. From 1990-2006, the average annual rate of return on Florida homeowners insurance was down 36.5% (BestWire, Nov. 28, 2007)… more →
