Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Florida’s Citizens Moves on From 2017, Expects Policy Count Growth in 2018
Jan 8 2018 // Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the Florida state-run insurer of last resort, is anticipating its policyholder count will increase in 2018 for the first time since its efforts to shed policies through depopulation began...
Epic Winter Storm Brings Car Wrecks, Broken Water Mains, Power Outages to Southeast
Jan 5 2018 // A brutal winter storm smacked the coastal Southeast with a rare blast of snow and ice Wednesday, hitting parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina with their heaviest snowfall in nearly three decades. The same system...
Florida Supreme Court Ruling to Have Big Impact on Duty to Defend Construction Cases
Jan 4 2018 // A recent case out of the Florida Supreme Court will likely have a big impact on the duty of insurers to defend Florida construction cases. The case, Altman Contractors, Inc. v. Crum & Forster Specialty Insurance...
Outages, Flooding Expected as Giant Snow and Ice ‘Bomb’ Targets Eastern States
Jan 3 2018 // The worst storm of the winter season has knocked out power to thousands and canceled almost 3,000 flights. Next it threatens to bring more snow, ice and cold from Florida to Nova Scotia, including New York and...
Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty Acquires J & A Insurance of Florida
Jan 3 2018 // Florida-based Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc. has acquired J & A Insurance and More, Inc., headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida. Led by Jacqueline Estevez and her team, the company has offered...
Florida Lawmakers to Reconsider Texting While Driving Ban
Jan 3 2018 // Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Mark Wysocky says it is hard to separate texting drivers from drunken drivers as he cruises down a suburban interstate highway. Both weave. They speed up and slow down for no obvious reason and...
Florida Could Be Close to a Real Estate Reckoning
Jan 2 2018 // Ross Hancock sold his four-bedroom house in Coral Gables, a city of pastel luxury at the edge of Miami, because he was worried that sea-level rise would eventually hurt his property’s value. He and his wife, Darlene,...
Top Insurance Journal Southeast Stories of 2017
Dec 29 2017 // It was another busy year in the Southeast with storms, workers’ comp, and carrier insolvencies dominating the headlines. Here’s a look back at some of the stories that attracted the most readers in...
Assignment of Benefits Abuse Tops Florida News for 2017
Dec 29 2017 // Florida’s ongoing battle with assignment of benefits (AOB) claims abuse was not a new topic in 2017, but it was certainly one of the hottest ones for Southeast readers. From threats of insurer ratings downgrades...
Sugary Sports Beans, Uber Divorce Claims Among Chamber’s ‘Most Ridiculous’ Lawsuits of 2017
Dec 28 2017 // A lawsuit by a woman claiming she was deceived about the amount of sugar in an exercise supplement called Sport Beans tops the list of what a top U.S. business lobby sees as the “most ridiculous” lawsuits of...
Report: Florida Rarely Punishes Doctors Sued for Malpractice
Dec 28 2017 // Florida doctors are rarely punished by state regulators even after they are sued for malpractice according to a newspaper report. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported last month that the Florida Department of Health...
Florida Residential Property Insurer Approved to Do Business in Arkansas
Dec 22 2017 // Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr has granted a Certificate of Authority to a Florida insurer to begin selling residential property insurance products in Arkansas. Gainesville, Fla.-based Tower Hill Signature...
Florida Construction Co. Owner Accused of $700K Workers’ Comp Scam
Dec 21 2017 // A Florida construction company owner has been arrested after allegedly providing fictitious information when applying for workers’ compensation insurance coverage to obtain a lower premium, according to a statement...
Casey Opens Second Brightway Insurance Agency in Florida
Dec 21 2017 // Ashley Casey, owner of Brightway, The Casey Agency in St. Augustine, Fla., has opened a new Brightway store in Palm Coast, Fla., making him the latest multi-unit owner with Brightway Insurance. The new agency, located at...
Fighting Low Level Fraud is Fighting Big Time Fraud
Dec 20 2017 // I saw an article today in Insurance Journal that was interesting to me as an insurance professional in the great state of Florida. The article discussed a case on insurance fraud in Florida related to Hurricane...
Florida’s Citizens Expects Policy Count Increase in 2018, Plans Claims System Upgrade
Dec 20 2017 // Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the Florida state-run insurer of last resort, is anticipating its policyholder count will increase in 2018 for the first time since its efforts to shed policies through depopulation began...
Greek System at Florida State University Remains Suspended After Frat Death
Dec 19 2017 // The president of Florida State University says he has no timetable yet for reinstating Greek activities on campus after they were suspended in November following the death of a fraternity pledge. John Thrasher told The...
The Charity Issue: Photos of Giving
Dec 18 2017 // The Keane Insurance Group John Keane, president of The Keane Insurance Group, founded the Keane Charitable Group in 2010 after the earthquake in Haiti. Since then, The Keane Group has raised more than $1 million to build...
Orchid Underwriters Taps Cyran as Chief Underwriting Officer in Florida
Dec 18 2017 // Orchid Underwriters Agency, LLC, a specialty underwriter of catastrophic coastal insurance, has hired Andrew Cyran as chief underwriting officer, a new position within the organization. Effective immediately, Cyran will...
People
Dec 18 2017 // INSUREtrust has promoted Will Tschetter to Professional Lines broker. In his new role, Tschetter will specifically focus on new broker production and will be brokering cyber insurance, technology errors and omissions...
