Florida Approves Removal of 71,000 Policies from Citizens for March Takeouts

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has approved the removal of up to 70,000 personal residential policies and 1,500 commercial residential polices from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (Citizens). The following two companies have been approved to participate:

• Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. – approved to remove up to 55,000 personal residential policies (35,000 Personal Lines Account and 20,000 Coastal Account) and up to 1,500 commercial residential policies (1,300 Commercial Lines Account and 200 Coastal Account)
• Southern Oak Insurance Co. – approved to remove up to 15,000 personal residential policies (10,000 Personal Lines Account and 5,000 Coastal Account

Citizen’s Personal Lines and Commercial Lines accounts are primarily non-coastal properties and the Coastal Account is coastal properties. The take-out periods are March 22, 2016 for personal residential impacting both the Personal Lines/Coastal Account policies and March 15, 2016 for commercial residential impacting both the Commercial Lines/Coastal Account policies. This is part of the state’s ongoing depopulation effort to reduce the number of policies in the state-created Citizens and transfer them to the private insurance market.

Today’s announcement brings the total number of potential policies approved for take-outs in 2016 to 277,149. In 2015, the total number of potential policies approved for take-outs was 1,321,193 and the actual number of policies removed from Citizens as of November 24, 2015 was 255,617. Policyholders who receive a take-out offer may choose to remain covered by Citizens through the opt-out process.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has primary responsibility for regulation, compliance and enforcement of statutes related to the business of insurance and the monitoring of industry markets.

Source: Florida Office of Insurance Regulation

Topics Florida Legislation