Florida to Restart Commercial Reinsurance Pool

August 1, 2006

Florida officials authorized a reactivation of a reinsurance pool for commercial lines insurance to help businesses obtain insurance.

The Commercial Joint Underwriting Association (JUA is intended to provide property insurance coverage to Florida's business owners who have been unable to secure it from private companies.

Tom Gallagher, Florida's chief financial officer, applauded today's decision by the Governor Jeb Bush and Cabinet to approve reactivating the JUA.

"Eight storms inflicting $38 billion in insured losses have created a crisis in Florida's property insurance market, and our state's homeowners and business owners are being held hostage as a result," said Gallagher. "The solution I recommended and we approved today will help provide basic coverage to Florida employers who employ thousands of hardworking citizens and serve as the backbone of our economy. There are some real opportunities to provide further relief for Floridians, and fighting for homeowners remains my number one priority."

The decision was met with caution by insurers.

Cecil Pearce, American Insurance Association vice president, for the Southeast, urged that the JUA's mission be strictly defined.

"Any commercial joint underwriting authority (JUA) must be carefully targeted to address the real problems that exist in the market, while not unintentionally creating additional problems. To that end, we urge the Office of Insurance Regulation to clearly define the scope and extent of the current market difficulties and to design the commercial property-casualty JUA to resolve those specific difficulties."

Pearce said insurers consider a commercial JUA to be a temporary, short-term fix for the current availability problems in the commercial property market.

"Long-term, we urge Florida policymakers to focus on solutions that address the fundamental challenge of attracting sufficient private insurance capital to Florida to support a growing and dynamic state," he said.