Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Barbecues, Mobile Centers Encourage Auto Owners to Turn in Wilma Claims
Nov 20 2005 // South Florida insurance agents encouraged the thousands of automobile owners who had vehicle damage during Hurricane Wilma to report them as soon as possible so they could be repaired, some agencies even held weekend...
Fla. CFO Gallagher Voices Support for Tax-Deferred CAT Fund Reserves
Nov 20 2005 // The serious challenge to Florida’s economy, the rising cost of property insurance and five solutions to hurricane issues were discussed on Nov. 7 in Tallahassee by Florida’s CFO Tom Gallagher at a briefing...
Carriers Flooded With Auto Damage Claims
Nov 20 2005 // Plantation, Fla., ‘Insurance Village’ The “Insurance Village” established by Florida’s Depart-ment of Financial Services in Plantation, Fla. west of Fort Lauderdale, had a lot of damaged...
News Briefs
Nov 20 2005 // FloridaFAIA Likes Due-Diligence Decision The Florida Association of Insu-rance Agents has filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief with the First District Court of Appeals in a case involving an insurance agent who...
People
Nov 20 2005 // Michael A. Moran has joined Insurance & Benefits Consultants of Sarasota, Fla., as president. Moran’s new responsibilities were announced after Florida Preferred Administrators Inc. entered into a purchase...
Florida CFO Announces Support for Catastrophic Fund
Nov 18 2005 // Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher has advocated several federal and state solutions for avoiding an insurance market meltdown, including the creation of a National Catastrophe Fund. Today, Florida...
Insurance Commissioners Announce Framework for National Cat Program
Nov 17 2005 // Concluding the two-day National Catastrophe Insurance Summit held in Burlingame, Calif., insurance commissioners from California, Florida, Illinois and New York on Wednesday agreed that they had a basic framework for a...
Commissioner Wooley Supports Uniform Building Codes in La.
Nov 16 2005 // The Louisiana Department of Insurance released the following statement by Commissioner of Insurance Robert Wooley to the Louisiana Legislature expressing his support for the establishment of statewide uniform building code...
Auto Fraud Case Link Suspected as Discarded Medical Records Discovered in Longwood, Fla.
Nov 15 2005 // A trash bin in Longwood, Fla. near Orlando has revealed boxes of medical records containing photographs, names, Social Security numbers and other personal information about chiropractic patients in Lawrence, Mass. treated...
PIA of Fla. Clarifies Status of Citizens Property Insurance’s Commissions
Nov 14 2005 // The Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Board of Governors met in May and agreed to change the amount of commissions it paid to agents, but Professional Insurance Agents of Florida members complained to the association that...
Insurance Regulators Hosting National Catastrophe Insurance Program Summit
Nov 14 2005 // State insurance regulators, industry representatives, catastrophe experts and consumer representatives are convening in San Francisco on Tuesday for a two-day summit in to help devise a national catastrophe insurance...
Emergency Management Director Addresses Florida’s Hurricane Response Weaknesses
Nov 10 2005 // The failures that left thousands of Florida residents unprepared for Hurricane Wilma should be addressed by launching a new election-style marketing campaign, expanding the tax-free shopping week and beefing up...
Safeco Sees After-Tax Losses from Wilma at $29 Million
Nov 10 2005 // Seattle-based Safeco announced estimated after-tax catastrophe losses from Hurricane Wilma of $29 million, or $0.23 per diluted share. Pretax catastrophe losses from the storm are estimated at $45 million. These figures...
FAIA Forms Young Agents Council to Perpetuate Leadership, Advocacy
Nov 9 2005 // A new Young Agents Council has been formed by the Florida Association of Insurance Agents in Tallahassee, Fla. The purpose of the YAC is to perpetuate the future of the independent insurance agency system by serving as the...
Citizens Property Board to Consider Rate Hikes When it Meets Next Week
Nov 9 2005 // Back-to-back insurance rate increases averaging 20 percent for non-hurricane premiums and 32 percent for wind-only premiums could be requested by Citizens Property Insurance Corp.’s board of directors after it meets...
Fla. CFO Gallagher Supports Tax-Deferred CAT Fund Reserves; Suggests Reinsurance Rate Study
Nov 8 2005 // Legislation in Congress to pass U.S. Rep. Mark Foley’s proposal to allow the accumulation of tax-deferred catastrophic reserves by insurers, and a study on how to add programs to the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe...
Medical Examiner Attributes 25 Percent of Hurricane Deaths to Cleanup Efforts
Nov 8 2005 // Cleanup activities after hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 resulted in 25 percent of the 201 deaths registered according to Dr. Stephen Nelson, chairman of the Florida Medical Examiners Commission. Accidents from cleaning up,...
People & Places
Nov 7 2005 // Cathy DeCoulaz Jim Shevlin has been named assistant vice president and regional business development manager for ACE USA’s Southeast Region. ACE USA is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pa. Marta Reeves Based in...
Lack of Electricity, Gasoline Slows Hurricane Wilma Recovery Efforts
Nov 7 2005 // Four days after Hurricane Wilma crossed southwest Florida and tore into South Florida, insurance agents in Naples and Miami told Insurance Journal they had not encountered the onslaught of claims they expected, but...
Harrington Tells FAIA: Employment Crisis Major Threat to Agencies
Nov 7 2005 // An impending employment crisis threatens independent insurance agencies and will become disastrous by 2010 unless employers act now, Lisa Harrington, Florida Association of Insurance Agents vice president of Education,...
