Latest Florida Headlines

All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Florida Insurance Commissioner and Allstate Resolve Pending Litigation

Aug 15 2008 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty announced that the Office of Insurance Regulation reached a limited agreement with the Allstate Companies. The agreement includes a $5 million fine to resolve the ongoing issues...

Florida Insurer Groups Align to Educate Public, Media

Aug 14 2008 // Professional Insurance Agents of Florida and the Florida Insurance Council have agreed to work together to form an agent/insurance company alliance aimed at educating the public and the media on insurance matters. PIA...

Florida Regulators May Reject State Farm Rate Increase

Aug 14 2008 // A State Farm rate increase appears in jeopardy after regulators grilled company officials for hours about a request to jack up rates in Florida by 47.1 percent. Florida’s insurance consumer advocate office told...

Florida-based AmCOMP Reports 2nd Quarter 2008 Financial Results

Aug 8 2008 // North Palm Beach, Florida-based AmCOMP Inc. announced results for the second quarter of 2008. For the second quarter of 2008, net income was $2.1 million compared to net income of $5.5 million for the second quarter of...

A.M. Best Rates Florida-based PURE Group of Insurance Companies

Aug 8 2008 // A.M. Best Co. assigned a financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings of “a-” to The PURE Group of Insurance Companies and its members: Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange and...

Florida Launches Updated Web Site for Homeowners Insurance Shoppers

Aug 7 2008 // Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty launched the updated www.ShopAndCompareRates.com Web site. The two offices activated the free, online tool in July 2007 to assist consumers looking to...

Ratings Roundup: ASI Preferred, Preserver

Aug 6 2008 // A.M. Best Co. has assigned a financial strength rating (FSR) of ‘A-‘ (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “a-” to Florida-based ASI Preferred Insurance Corporation, following the inclusion...

Legal, Home Safety Groups in Florida Clash over FLASH

Aug 5 2008 // If you need help strengthening your home against hurricanes or other disasters, just call FLASH. If you’re a Florida homeowner and need free legal aid to avoid foreclosure, you can call another FLASH. The first FLASH...

Florida Farm Bureau’s Proposed Rate Hike Meets Disapproval

Aug 5 2008 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said the Office of Insurance Regulation issued a notice of intent to disapprove the June 20 rate filing submitted by Florida Farm Bureau Insurance Companies – Farm Bureau...

Surplus Market Snapshot: Business Rides the Market Tides

Aug 4 2008 // Some Lines of Business Down But Not All; More Large Firms Going Directly to Foreign Insurers The people who run the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office are smack dab in the middle of the action and can see better than...

Reducing the Risk in Florida Surplus Lines

Aug 4 2008 // Build Relationships, Advises FSLA Board Member O’Leary Like trapeze artists performing without a net, surplus lines specialists operate without the backing of the state guaranty fund, which picks up the pieces for...

What Retail Agents Need to Know to Access Florida Surplus Lines

Aug 4 2008 // 10 +1 Questions of Advice for Agents Thinking of Sticking Their Toes into Florida’s Surplus Lines Waters Gary Pullen, executive director, and the staff of the Florida Surplus Line Service Office supplied answers to...

It Figures

Aug 4 2008 // $41 Million The amount Florida residents saved last year thanks to a 10-day sales tax reprieve on back-to-school and hurricane supplies. They will not see similar savings this year because the temporary suspension of the...

Declarations

Aug 4 2008 // Reasonable Care “In short, there is no allegation that any Delta employee failed to exercise reasonable care in the performance of his/her duty in any manner in respect to Flight No. 5191.” —U.S. District...

State Farm: 47.1% Florida Hike

Aug 4 2008 // State Farm Florida Insurance Co. filed an average 47.1 percent homeowners insurance rate increase with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Ed Domansky, spokesperson for the OIR, said a public hearing will be held...

Business Moves

Aug 4 2008 // Tokio Marine, Philadelphia Insurance Japan’s Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc. has agreed to acquire Philadelphia Consolidated, a U.S. property/casualty insurance company offering specialty commercial property and casualty...

Florida-based Homeowners Choice Announces Initial Public Offering

Aug 1 2008 // Homeowners Choice Inc., based in Clearwater, Florida, announced that it has completed an initial public offering of 1,666,668 units, each consisting of one common share and one warrant, at a price of $7.00 per unit. Two...

Florida, Berkshire Hathaway Strike $224 Million Deal on Insurance Fund

Jul 31 2008 // Florida will pay $224 million to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. for a guarantee that the state can borrow up to $4 billion if necessary to help cover future losses by its emergency hurricane insurance fund. Gov. Charlie Crist and...

Florida Installs New Citizens Insurance Board of Governors Chairman

Jul 25 2008 // Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink announced the appointment of James R. Malone as chairman of the Board of Governors for Citizens Property Insurance Corp., effective August 1. State-backed Citizens is the largest...

Florida Insurance Commissioner Praises Mandatory Arbitration Ban

Jul 23 2008 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty welcomed the First District Court of Appeal’s decision affirming the Office of Insurance Regulation’s denial of United Insurance Company of America’s request...