Citizens board of governors submits new legislative agenda to Florida lawmakers

The governing board of Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has agreed on a new legislative agenda that could save the state-run insurance program more than $1.5 billion in insured losses. The board met with state legislators this week in Orlando to discuss the agenda, particularly what legislators can do to make the insurance program more efficient. The board expressed the importance of making cuts to the types of properties the program can insure and has begun pressuring lawmakers to hasten the rate at which premiums can rise. Earlier this year,…

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Nationwide average for homeowners’ insurance premiums increased in all but two states

According to the most recent HomeInsurance.com RateReport, which shows the average premiums across all of the states in the country over a 12 month period (as of September), all but two states experienced an increase in homeowners’ insurance premiums. The two states that saw a decrease in premiums were Washington D.C. and Vermont. All of the other states in the country saw their average homeowners’ premiums increase from 0.1 percent to 5.8 percent more than what policyholders had been paying during the year beforehand. The average premiums that were used…

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Florida dodges volatile hurricane season, could make Citizens Property Insurance more financially sound for 2012 season

Hurricane season has come to an end and Florida and its insurers are still standing. Florida has managed to evade major hurricanes for the past six consecutive years. For a state that is growing increasingly dependent upon insurance coverage, this is no small feat. Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance has also emerged from the season virtually unscathed by major storms, though the state-run insurer is still wracked with persistent financial and fraud issues. The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season produced 19 named storms, of which only 7 became full-fledged hurricanes, according to…

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Allstate to drop homeowners if they do not get their auto insurance from the company

In an effort to rein in on risk in North Carolina, Allstate has begun dropping homeowner’s policies for those that refuse to also purchase their auto insurance from the company. The 45,000 homeowners Allstate currently provides coverage for in the state have been informed that they must switch their auto insurance policies over to Allstate by December 15 of this year or risk losing their home insurance policies entirely. The company cites risk management as the driving force behind the initiative. Those that lose their coverage from Allstate are not…

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NAPCO study shows that the U.S. property insurance market is under stress

A new study from NAPCO LLC, a wholesale broker of commercial property insurance coverage, suggests that the national catastrophe property market is quickly moving away from the soft market conditions that have governed insurance prices for several years. While this is typically good news for some insurers, the study shows that a low demand for insurance coverage may restrict the pricing power of insurers. David Pagoumian, CEO of NAPCO, says that property insurers are under heavy pressure to make profits in the current climate and may face even greater pressures…

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