Florida’s CFO still confident property insurance situation will improve

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said he’s still confident the state’s homeowner insurance crisis will get better.

“Four new companies in one year when we haven’t had that many new companies in one year in 10 years," Patronis said during a visit in West Palm Beach on Wednesday.

The new companies are entering the Florida market as part of a depopulation program of Citizens Insurance, moving Citizens customers away from the state insurer of last resort.

Citizens has swelled to 1.3 million policies this year as many companies have canceled policies and left the state.

Patronis said the new companies are looking to make a foothold in Florida by taking on Citizens policies.

“They really don’t want to pick up a 100,000 policies out of southeast Florida only. They need a variety of markets to have some exposure,” he said

The state’s Office of Insurance Regulation is also carefully looking at the new companies to make sure they’re financially sound and ready.

“We cannot afford to have any hiccups, so the carriers will be well funded, well capitalized and we’ll make sure they have the appropriate skills, technical expertise and operations in place," Patronis said.

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