Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Florida Widow Wins $30 Million Against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Jun 3 2009 // A Florida jury has awarded $30 million to a Pensacola widow in a ruling against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. Lawyers for Benny Martin, who died of lung cancer in 1995, said the tobacco company conspired to make their products...
Florida Workers’ Compensation Rates Cut to Reflect Lawyer Fee Cap Law
Jun 3 2009 // Florida’s insurance regulator has approved a rollback of workers’ compensation insurance rates from April 1 rates to the lower rates that were in effect on Jan. 1. The order by Florida Insurance Commissioner...
Florida Surplus Lines Insurance Regulation Bill Awaits Gov.’s Signature
Jun 2 2009 // Legislation intended to clarify the regulation of the surplus lines insurance industry in Florida has reached the desk of Gov. Charlie Crist. Crist has until June 16 to sign the bill (HB 853), which the industry hopes and...
P/C Insurers Apply Lessons from Hurricane Katrina
Jun 2 2009 // The property/casualty insurance industry is employing advancements in catastrophe modeling and considering the impact of the creation of a national catastrophe fund as it applies lessons learned from Hurricane...
Florida Reinsurance Rate Hike of 15% Tracks with Global Rates
Jun 1 2009 // Florida property/catastrophe reinsurance rates increased by 15 percent at the June 1, 2009, renewal, compared to a decline of 15 percent a year ago, according to reinsurance specialist Guy Carpenter & Co. In a new...
Declarations
Jun 1 2009 // 10 Years “Unless there’s some Einstein out there that knows something none of us do, the prevailing thought among the researchers is that a good 24-hour forecast of intensity change is a goal, a stretch goal,...
40% of Florida Home Carriers Losing Money Even With No Big Storms
Jun 1 2009 // With the start of the hurricane season just a few weeks away, a leading Florida consumer advocate joined independent agents at a press conference to warn that property insurance rates need to be raised if insurers are...
A.M. Best Concerned Over Insurers’ Exposure to the Florida Hurricane Fund
Jun 1 2009 // Based on the recently revised projected claims-paying capacity of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF), rating agency A.M. Best has updated its treatment of reinsurance provided to rated entities from this...
Business Moves
Jun 1 2009 // AIG American International Group agreed to sell its prime real estate holding in Tokyo for approximately $1.2 billion in cash to Nippon Life Insurance Co. The property consists of one acre of land on which The AIG Otemachi...
Ratings Recap: GeoVera, Catholic Knights, Auto Owners, Church Mutual
Jun 1 2009 // A.M. Best Co. has revised the outlook to positive from stable and affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of ‘A-‘ (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “a-” of Calif.-based GeoVera...
Florida CFO Race Begins
Jun 1 2009 // Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater says he’s running for chief financial officer (CFO). The North Palm Beach Republican filed as a candidate just about a week after incumbent CFO Alex Sink, a Democrat, entered the...
Coastal Insureds, Insurers Brace for Start of New Hurricane Season
Jun 1 2009 // As the 2009 hurricane season arrives, many homeowners are finding insurance is either more expensive, or harder to get. Homeowners from New York to Florida and in the Gulf Coast region are again seeing premiums rise and...
Florida Gov. Crist Urged to Fire Insurance Chief McCarty
Jun 1 2009 // A state senator wants Florida’s insurance commissioner to resign, calling him “duplicitous and untrustworty” last week in a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist. If he won’t resign, Crist should fire him,...
Unsecured Foreclosed Homes Pose Huge Risk as Hurricane Season Opens
May 29 2009 // Mike Manikchand points toward his neighbors in Lehigh Acres — a half-dozen empty, foreclosed-upon homes, sitting on weed-strewn yards — and he wonders: What will happen if a hurricane slams into southwest...
Florida Gov. Crist Signs Bill Capping Legal Fees for Workers’ Comp
May 29 2009 // Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has signed into law a bill that restores a cap on the fees attorneys may charge in workers’ compensation cases. A previous law limiting the fees had been ruled unreasonable by the...
Florida Debuts Online Insurance Library
May 29 2009 // The Florida Department of Financial Services has developed an online Insurance Library to provide Floridians with on financial and insurance issues. The Insurance Library also has information to assist citizens as they...
Florida Gov. Crist Backs Insurance Commissioner McCarty Over Critic
May 28 2009 // Gov. Charlie Crist has rejected a state senator’s demand to fire Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty if he refuses to resign. Crist said that McCarty has done a good job and should stay on. McCarty is...
Florida Gov. Crist Signs Citizens Insurance Rate Hike Bill Into Law
May 28 2009 // Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has signed legislation that will increase property insurance rates by 10 percent annually on more than one million customers of the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and gradually...
Florida State Senator Urges Insurance Chief McCarty to Resign
May 26 2009 // A state senator wants Florida’s insurance commissioner to resign, calling him “duplicitous and untrustworty” last week in a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist. Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, wrote Insurance...
Only 2 Florida Domestic Insurers Lose Demotech Ratings Thus Far
May 22 2009 // Two domestic property insurers no longer writing in the state — one by choice, the other forced– are the only two Florida insurers negatively affected thus far by a rating agency’s review of small...
