Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Highways Deaths Declined in Florida in 2008
Jul 8 2009 // Highway deaths are at an 8-year low in Florida. Also for the first time since 2000, fewer than 3,000 people lost their lives on the state’s roadways, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles...
Focus Holdings Closes on Acquisition of Capacity Insurance in Florida
Jul 8 2009 // Focus Holdings, LLC in Sunrise, Florida, reports that it closed on its acquisition of Capacity Insurance Co. (CIC), a Florida domestic commercial lines insurer, effective July 1, 2009. Focus, better known by the name of...
OSHA to Investigate Monorail Death at Florida’s Disney World
Jul 7 2009 // A federal agency has opened an investigation into the death of an operator of Walt Disney World’s monorail train in Florida. The investigation launched Monday by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration...
Allstate Floridian Changes Name to Castle Key
Jul 6 2009 // Allstate Floridian Insurance Co. and Allstate Floridian Indemnity Co., property insurance subsidiaries of Allstate Insurance Co., have changed their names to Castle Key Insurance Co. and Castle Key Indemnity Co.,...
Florida’s New Insurers Won’t Pick Up State Farm Slack, McCarty Says
Jul 6 2009 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said the 54 property insurers backed by nearly $5 billion in capital that have been admitted to the state since 2006 can’t be expected to absorb all of the policies left...
It Figures
Jul 6 2009 // 2.4% The average hike in auto insurance rates in Georgia this year. That compares to an average 5 to 11 percent hike for homeowners insurance. Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine said that in other states rates...
Florida Workers’ Comp Lawyers Retained Business After 2003 Reforms
Jul 6 2009 // After Florida limited the fees insurers had to pay to attorneys in workers’ compensation cases in 2003, attorney involvement in cases fell only slightly, according to new research. In fact, a significant proportion...
People
Jul 6 2009 // Jeffrey A. Vanderpool has been promoted to senior vice president and chief claims officer at Sunshine State Insurance Co. in St. Augustine, Fla. Vanderpool has served as vice president of caims since he joined the insurer...
Business Moves
Jul 6 2009 // Wells Fargo Insurance Services, Grady & Associates Wells Fargo Insurance Services Inc. signed a definitive agreement to acquire Grady & Associates, a retail broker in Las Vegas. The acquisition closed June 1,...
Florida Finds Owners for $173 Million in Unclaimed Property, Benefits, Deposits
Jul 2 2009 // Florida returned over $173 million in unclaimed property for the most recent fiscal year– the largest amount in state history, according to CFO Alex Sink and her Bureau of Unclaimed Property. The Bureau of Unclaimed...
Florida Gets Strict About Buckling Up
Jul 1 2009 // Florida drivers shouldn’t expect state troopers to let them off with just a warning if they are caught driving with their seat belt unbuckled now that a a new law has gone into effect. The Florida Highway Patrol...
Former MLB Pitcher Metheney Joins Florida’s Lassiter-Ware Insurance
Jul 1 2009 // Nelson Metheney has joined the team of Lassiter-Ware Insurance as a bond producer. Metheney previously worked as the vice president of bonding for Humphrey, Stump and Haynie Insurance in Salem, Virginia. Metheney was also...
Ratings Roundup: CastlePoint, Doctors, Meadowbrook
Jun 29 2009 // A.M. Best Co. has assigned a financial strength rating of ‘A-‘ (Excellent) and issuer credit rating of “a-” to CastlePoint Florida Insurance Company with stable outlooks. “CFIC is a newly...
U.S. House Panel to Bring Homeowners Insurance Crisis Hearing to Florida
Jun 26 2009 // A subcommitee of the U.S. House of Representatives that is looking into trouble spots in the country’s homeowner insurance market is coming to Florida in July. House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations...
Florida Trucker Paralyzed By Accident Awarded $14.6 Million
Jun 25 2009 // A South Florida truck driver has been awarded $14.6 million from an accident that left him paralyzed. A Broward Circuit Court judge ordered insurer National Casualty Co. to pay 64-year-old Derry Brown Jr. Jurors decided...
Florida Gov. Crist Vetoes ‘State Farm’ Insurance Rate Deregulation Bill
Jun 24 2009 // Siding with domestic insurers, consumer groups and the state insurance regulator, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist today vetoed a bill designed to keep State Farm from leaving and attract other large insurers to the state by...
New Florida Commercial Insurer CastlePoint Assigned Ratings
Jun 24 2009 // A.M. Best Co. has assigned a financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) and issuer credit rating of “a-” to CastlePoint Florida Insurance Co. (CFIC) of Fort Lauderdale. The rating firm said the outlook...
Florida Independent Insurance Agents Establish Charitable Fund
Jun 23 2009 // At its recent 105th annual conference in Orlando, the Florida Association of Insurance Agents (FAIA) announced a donation of $500,000 to launch a new charitable project, the Good Works Fund. In addition to helping...
Florida, German Insurance Regulators Sign Cooperation Pact
Jun 22 2009 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty announced that the Office of Insurance Regulation and the German Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin) have agreed to work together on sharing and...
Ratings Recap: Argus, Universal No. Am., DTRIC, Knights of Columbus
Jun 22 2009 // A.M. Best Co. has downgraded the financial strength rating to ‘D’ (Poor) from ‘C-‘ (Weak) and issuer credit rating to “c” from “ccc-” of Florida-based Argus Fire &...
