Start rating risks properly instead of “giving” coverage away. Citizens simply doesn’t charge enough. So get your head out of the Governors you know what and wise up.
What are you smoking? The OIR has failed in its role of governance. Rate rollbacks, forced credits, and continued rate suppression for 6 years! Why are rate filings now being approved at record pace and all below the 15% level? (1) to try and save those carriers who are bleeding a slow death and (2) CYA.
The OIR can say all they want they do not set rates but do your homework. They have historically granted rate increases less than requested and justified and now are granting more than requested. THEY ARE TO BLAME COMPLETELY!
*More than 1/2 of Florida insurers reported decreases in policyholders’ surplus in a year that there were no hurricanes.
*A culture of corruption combined with over regulation has led to several small companies failing. One such company was allowed to take out 100,000 policies from Citizens.
*State Farm was nearly chased out of the state and the alternative has led to 125,000 losing secure coverage.
Come on McCarty. You can’t keep up the sham forever!
Mr. Solvent is being selective in HIS facts just as McCarty is. State Farm “nearly chased out” but wasn’t and the spreading of its business with other carriers is better for State Farm and the state.
Can’t blame the regulators for all the problems.
Not everything is solved by letting insurers raise rates– you have to know that the money is staying with the insurer and will be here to pay claims. Do you think all of those companies are really losing money due to insufficient rates? Or are the top execs and their affiliated firms making out like bandits with overpayments from their insurance units?
Larry, you’re delusional aren’t you? How is it not regulators’ fault? How is it that more than 50% of carriers lost money? I’ll give you a hint, it’s not an MGA problem.
In some cases, the MGA issue is a contributor whether you want to believe it or not, as is over-generous mitigation discounts, lax fraud fighting, the economy, public adjusters, poor management, slow rate approvals, etc. If it’s all the fault of the regulators, why aren’t ALL carriers reporting losses? Rate approvals have gained momentum in past 9 months. Watch how Citizens grows as rates go up more– you won’t be happy with
that situation either. McCarty is right that solutions have to deal with the facts– not just yours or his, but all the facts.
Larry – are you serious!!!??? Who jammed the wind mitigation down the throat of the carriers? Who has not granted rate increases (just a few) in the past three years until recently b/c the OIR now knows their actions caused this mess? Who hasn’t done anything about public adjusters? Who has said carriers should pay replacement cost upfront? One answer, the Gov and the OIR. They must go. They are at fault. Most MGA’s put money back into the carrier – The OIR doesn’t like for carriers to show a profit in the ins. co b/c it is a dirty word to Democrats and That Gov who says he is a Republican – but in name only.
McCarty is a puppet of Charlie Crist. He’s no more than a political puppet whose strings are pulled by our lame duck Governor. He cannot be trusted to tell the truth when he has a history of deceit with the public. Remember his claims that Florida had 40 new insurers enter the market with $4 billion in new capital – that was BS, not true, but he used it to misinform the public and legislators during last year’s debates on property insurance. Seems like Kevin is the guy making stuff up and trying to steer the debate.
As for the 1 in 100 year storm…how many Charlie, Frances, Jeanne, and Ivan’s does it take to equate to a 1 in 100 year storm. If we get another 2004 or 2005 season, is he sure Citizens, the CAT Fund, and all the new Florida domestics can survive that? I bet not.
Interesting that his media release comes on the heels of the Northern Capital insolvency and financial problem with Olympus. He had Northern Capital under “surveillance” for 10 months -allowing Florida consumers to continue to buy insurance from them (with their A rating from Demotech) knowing they couldn’t possibly survive a hurricane. That’s not good for Florida consumers. McCarty knows there are more companies out there in trouble and instead of facing reality, he’s subscribing to the Charlie Crist “pray at the wall” insurance strategy.
Kevin, it would be a whole lot easier to believe you if you weren’t so busy pushing the Crist agenda. But, you are no longer a regulator. You are a political puppet, and we can’t trust what you say.
” how many Charlie, Frances, Jeanne, and Ivan’s does it take to equate to a 1 in 100 year storm”
Won’t take that much. Just one Andrew about twenty miles north of the first one. That would pretty much wipe all the Property insurers off the Florida map.
Sorry, Melissa. McCarty’s facts can always be disputed. Sink knows that, so she challenged him a few times as she needed to.
Just remember this – McCarty also told us that it was a fact there were 40 new insurers with $4 billion in new capital in the Florida market. That was not true, and when Sink got him in front of the cabinet, we found out that the truth was more like $300 Million or less, not $4 billion. That was a big exaggeration of the truth.
McCarty does not deal in facts. He deals in politics. That’s a different animal.
Kevin I think people would be interested in knowing that citizens and the cat fund have little to no money. Post event funding is another way to say- we did not plan properly. Oh we did not plan at all.
Kevin’s timeline on big insurers fleeing Florida is off a bit. The climate in this state under he and Charlie has gotten so hostile that they would be committing financial malfeasanse not to cut back their FL exposure. His sham indictment of Allstate and dragging them through the courts and Charlie saying how “proud” he was really helped.
his comments before the Cabinet dissing State Farm were juvinile and counterproductive.
The Senate show trials of the large insurers which he fully backed were a joke.
Kevin’s press release congratulating Atwater for his “consumer friendly” legislation was completn appointed ly out-of-bounds for a regulator.
And the Governor you meet with weekly has continued his sophomoric rant against “big insurance” which means you haven’t tried to convince him of the counterproductiveness of such talk.
And – I could go on all day – you supported alllowing Citizens to charge below market rates and compete with private capital.
Kevin – capital runs from unfreindly markets – this is all on you. Stop having your minions write these silly letters trying to selectively pick facts and ignore your pathetic performance.
Nice spin with that “once in a millenium” stuff in an attempt to confuse the average reader. Call it instead what it is: “we’ve accepted a 1% chance of your state’s financial ruin” and let people decide for themselves whether that is acceptable.
Nobody “forced” carriers to accept bogus mitigation credits; some carriers were too lazy to verify.
Most MGAs put money back into the carrier– this may or may not be true but there are obviously some that do not and some that also have bogus reinsurance deals and they are among those claiming they are losing money.
Government ain’t perfect but neither are private insurers, whether regulated or unregulated.
There’s enough blame to go around and private insurers are not blameless.
You can talk all you like about premiums being too low and how Citizens’ premiums are below market. The insurance industry needs to consider how much the consumer can pay. I am a consumer. My insurance costs have increased 300% since 2004. My income has not. Through higher deductibles, I self-insure 10 times as much as I used to. Citizens is my only option for all of my older properties. I will be forced to drop wind coverage as my next step as premiums rise.
Brad, I’ve been an agent for a lot of years. I’d really like premiums from 2004, trust me. If you’re paying 300% more, you haven’t taken advantage of the wind mitigation programs that have been exploited by our buddies Kevin and Charlie. You really should check with your agent, especially if these properties have newer roofs and/or shutters.
“Citizens is my only option for all of my older properties.” So you own more than your primary residence? Wow. Sucks to be YOU! No sympathy from me there fella. You can’t be doing too bad if you can own more than the roof over your head. Wah Wah Wah I don’t usually begrudge anyone for doing well, but don’t cry poor to me when you obviously are not. Like buying a Ferrari and then having the nerve to whine about the price of gas. It’s just annoying…
simply because somebody has rental properties doesn’t mean they’re rich. Especially if they are upside down on the homes. Rentals are all about cash flow. The higher insurance and taxes, the more trouble you’ll have with cash flow. At least Brad hasn’t let the properties go to foreclosure like many people.
Although, Mr. Solvent is right, if you take advantage of what’s out there, your premiums shouldn’t have tripled since 2004.
So back when these “DRACONIAN” measures were put in place, what exactly was McCarty doing, he has been with the department of insurance long before he was bedded (pun intended) for appointment. Only a politician would fight so far to defend a pile of crap program that just has no chance of working. And the dork just keeps defending it, hows that been working out for Floridians for the last 10 years. Not so good. Come November we should all get T-shirts that say ” I survived both Charlies, Hurricane and Governor.
“The Governor and Legislature developed an alternative approach: to expand homegrown Florida insurers, and to fight to keep a private insurance marketplace.”
Crist and the legistlature changed the laws so Citizens would no longer be a “market of last resort,” specifically so it could compete directly with all private carriers in Florida. On top of that, the OIR overturned a Citizens rate increase and further returned rates back to their 2004 levels to appease consumer lobbying groups in the hurricane-prone South Florida counties where the bulk of Citizens policyholders are located. How is that a “private” market approach??? Probably the only reason Citizens hasn’t already put more companies out of business is because they’re hard to deal with so no agent wants to place customers with them. They were the worst of five companies marched into Tallahassee after the 2004 & 2005 hurricane seasons to explain why they were doing such a bad job handling claims.
Even if insurers are allowed to raise rates, that won’t stabilize the market until Citizens is changed back into a company of last resort instead of what it is now–a big subsidy for cheap rates in South Florida.
I never said anything about being rich. I said he must be doing pretty well if he has more than just the roof over his head. I think we can both agree that it isn’t what you make, it’s what you keep. Which is less and less for most people these days. Unfortunately.
Like assessments on my auto policy for the Cat Fund of 1%, that can’t be disbuted or the fact that they will be there for many more years. What does my auto premium have to do with the Cat Fund other than most customers won’t complain about that tax on their bill that small they just think they had a rate increase. Let’s not forget that they can assess our auto premium up to 6% when Citizens fails again. These are Facts Melissa and notice they don’t use the word Tax, they call them assessments.
Ignoring the fact that rates are underpriced with the attitude of it’s ok because we can assess everyone later is the wrong thing for government official to think. Private Insurance does not have an assessment option, it they did they wouldn’t care what they charged up front either. He didn’t set anything strait here other than he has no solution. I hope the Federal Government knows his plan!!!
Mr McCarty, here is an idea.
Start rating risks properly instead of “giving” coverage away. Citizens simply doesn’t charge enough. So get your head out of the Governors you know what and wise up.
Good luck.
What are you smoking? The OIR has failed in its role of governance. Rate rollbacks, forced credits, and continued rate suppression for 6 years! Why are rate filings now being approved at record pace and all below the 15% level? (1) to try and save those carriers who are bleeding a slow death and (2) CYA.
The OIR can say all they want they do not set rates but do your homework. They have historically granted rate increases less than requested and justified and now are granting more than requested. THEY ARE TO BLAME COMPLETELY!
*More than 1/2 of Florida insurers reported decreases in policyholders’ surplus in a year that there were no hurricanes.
*A culture of corruption combined with over regulation has led to several small companies failing. One such company was allowed to take out 100,000 policies from Citizens.
*State Farm was nearly chased out of the state and the alternative has led to 125,000 losing secure coverage.
Come on McCarty. You can’t keep up the sham forever!
Mr. Solvent is being selective in HIS facts just as McCarty is. State Farm “nearly chased out” but wasn’t and the spreading of its business with other carriers is better for State Farm and the state.
Can’t blame the regulators for all the problems.
Not everything is solved by letting insurers raise rates– you have to know that the money is staying with the insurer and will be here to pay claims. Do you think all of those companies are really losing money due to insufficient rates? Or are the top execs and their affiliated firms making out like bandits with overpayments from their insurance units?
Larry, you’re delusional aren’t you? How is it not regulators’ fault? How is it that more than 50% of carriers lost money? I’ll give you a hint, it’s not an MGA problem.
Kevin, how many property filings were approved last year? What about this year? How can you get more domestic capacity with so few approvals?
In some cases, the MGA issue is a contributor whether you want to believe it or not, as is over-generous mitigation discounts, lax fraud fighting, the economy, public adjusters, poor management, slow rate approvals, etc. If it’s all the fault of the regulators, why aren’t ALL carriers reporting losses? Rate approvals have gained momentum in past 9 months. Watch how Citizens grows as rates go up more– you won’t be happy with
that situation either. McCarty is right that solutions have to deal with the facts– not just yours or his, but all the facts.
“…as is over-generous mitigation discounts, lax fraud fighting, the economy, public adjusters, poor management, slow rate approvals, etc…”
You said it, not me. Who is responsible for the mitigation credits, rate approvals, and public adjusters?
As for Citizens, if they charged sound rates, people wouldn’t flock to them as private companies take increases.
Larry – are you serious!!!??? Who jammed the wind mitigation down the throat of the carriers? Who has not granted rate increases (just a few) in the past three years until recently b/c the OIR now knows their actions caused this mess? Who hasn’t done anything about public adjusters? Who has said carriers should pay replacement cost upfront? One answer, the Gov and the OIR. They must go. They are at fault. Most MGA’s put money back into the carrier – The OIR doesn’t like for carriers to show a profit in the ins. co b/c it is a dirty word to Democrats and That Gov who says he is a Republican – but in name only.
Of the most magnificent magnitude. Progressive politicians trying to “save us from ourselves” and look what it has wrought…destruction.
McCarty is a puppet of Charlie Crist. He’s no more than a political puppet whose strings are pulled by our lame duck Governor. He cannot be trusted to tell the truth when he has a history of deceit with the public. Remember his claims that Florida had 40 new insurers enter the market with $4 billion in new capital – that was BS, not true, but he used it to misinform the public and legislators during last year’s debates on property insurance. Seems like Kevin is the guy making stuff up and trying to steer the debate.
As for the 1 in 100 year storm…how many Charlie, Frances, Jeanne, and Ivan’s does it take to equate to a 1 in 100 year storm. If we get another 2004 or 2005 season, is he sure Citizens, the CAT Fund, and all the new Florida domestics can survive that? I bet not.
Interesting that his media release comes on the heels of the Northern Capital insolvency and financial problem with Olympus. He had Northern Capital under “surveillance” for 10 months -allowing Florida consumers to continue to buy insurance from them (with their A rating from Demotech) knowing they couldn’t possibly survive a hurricane. That’s not good for Florida consumers. McCarty knows there are more companies out there in trouble and instead of facing reality, he’s subscribing to the Charlie Crist “pray at the wall” insurance strategy.
Kevin, it would be a whole lot easier to believe you if you weren’t so busy pushing the Crist agenda. But, you are no longer a regulator. You are a political puppet, and we can’t trust what you say.
Look McCarty is clarifying the facts due to the crap in the media and lobbyist’s agendas. Sorry if it doesn’t fit the agendas of the opponents.
You hit the nail on the head Arthro. I think there’s more to the Olympus story than meets the eye. Stay tuned.
Melissa,
You’d be better off in the People’s Republic of California.
” how many Charlie, Frances, Jeanne, and Ivan’s does it take to equate to a 1 in 100 year storm”
Won’t take that much. Just one Andrew about twenty miles north of the first one. That would pretty much wipe all the Property insurers off the Florida map.
I don’t think so, there is no such place.
Sorry, Melissa. McCarty’s facts can always be disputed. Sink knows that, so she challenged him a few times as she needed to.
Just remember this – McCarty also told us that it was a fact there were 40 new insurers with $4 billion in new capital in the Florida market. That was not true, and when Sink got him in front of the cabinet, we found out that the truth was more like $300 Million or less, not $4 billion. That was a big exaggeration of the truth.
McCarty does not deal in facts. He deals in politics. That’s a different animal.
Kevin I think people would be interested in knowing that citizens and the cat fund have little to no money. Post event funding is another way to say- we did not plan properly. Oh we did not plan at all.
Kevin’s timeline on big insurers fleeing Florida is off a bit. The climate in this state under he and Charlie has gotten so hostile that they would be committing financial malfeasanse not to cut back their FL exposure. His sham indictment of Allstate and dragging them through the courts and Charlie saying how “proud” he was really helped.
his comments before the Cabinet dissing State Farm were juvinile and counterproductive.
The Senate show trials of the large insurers which he fully backed were a joke.
Kevin’s press release congratulating Atwater for his “consumer friendly” legislation was completn appointed ly out-of-bounds for a regulator.
And the Governor you meet with weekly has continued his sophomoric rant against “big insurance” which means you haven’t tried to convince him of the counterproductiveness of such talk.
And – I could go on all day – you supported alllowing Citizens to charge below market rates and compete with private capital.
Kevin – capital runs from unfreindly markets – this is all on you. Stop having your minions write these silly letters trying to selectively pick facts and ignore your pathetic performance.
Nice spin with that “once in a millenium” stuff in an attempt to confuse the average reader. Call it instead what it is: “we’ve accepted a 1% chance of your state’s financial ruin” and let people decide for themselves whether that is acceptable.
Nobody “forced” carriers to accept bogus mitigation credits; some carriers were too lazy to verify.
Most MGAs put money back into the carrier– this may or may not be true but there are obviously some that do not and some that also have bogus reinsurance deals and they are among those claiming they are losing money.
Government ain’t perfect but neither are private insurers, whether regulated or unregulated.
There’s enough blame to go around and private insurers are not blameless.
Oh the benefits of being a military brat. :)
You can talk all you like about premiums being too low and how Citizens’ premiums are below market. The insurance industry needs to consider how much the consumer can pay. I am a consumer. My insurance costs have increased 300% since 2004. My income has not. Through higher deductibles, I self-insure 10 times as much as I used to. Citizens is my only option for all of my older properties. I will be forced to drop wind coverage as my next step as premiums rise.
Brad, I’ve been an agent for a lot of years. I’d really like premiums from 2004, trust me. If you’re paying 300% more, you haven’t taken advantage of the wind mitigation programs that have been exploited by our buddies Kevin and Charlie. You really should check with your agent, especially if these properties have newer roofs and/or shutters.
“Citizens is my only option for all of my older properties.” So you own more than your primary residence? Wow. Sucks to be YOU! No sympathy from me there fella. You can’t be doing too bad if you can own more than the roof over your head. Wah Wah Wah I don’t usually begrudge anyone for doing well, but don’t cry poor to me when you obviously are not. Like buying a Ferrari and then having the nerve to whine about the price of gas. It’s just annoying…
You could move to Iowa, you know. There the premiums are cheap!
simply because somebody has rental properties doesn’t mean they’re rich. Especially if they are upside down on the homes. Rentals are all about cash flow. The higher insurance and taxes, the more trouble you’ll have with cash flow. At least Brad hasn’t let the properties go to foreclosure like many people.
Although, Mr. Solvent is right, if you take advantage of what’s out there, your premiums shouldn’t have tripled since 2004.
So back when these “DRACONIAN” measures were put in place, what exactly was McCarty doing, he has been with the department of insurance long before he was bedded (pun intended) for appointment. Only a politician would fight so far to defend a pile of crap program that just has no chance of working. And the dork just keeps defending it, hows that been working out for Floridians for the last 10 years. Not so good. Come November we should all get T-shirts that say ” I survived both Charlies, Hurricane and Governor.
“The Governor and Legislature developed an alternative approach: to expand homegrown Florida insurers, and to fight to keep a private insurance marketplace.”
Crist and the legistlature changed the laws so Citizens would no longer be a “market of last resort,” specifically so it could compete directly with all private carriers in Florida. On top of that, the OIR overturned a Citizens rate increase and further returned rates back to their 2004 levels to appease consumer lobbying groups in the hurricane-prone South Florida counties where the bulk of Citizens policyholders are located. How is that a “private” market approach??? Probably the only reason Citizens hasn’t already put more companies out of business is because they’re hard to deal with so no agent wants to place customers with them. They were the worst of five companies marched into Tallahassee after the 2004 & 2005 hurricane seasons to explain why they were doing such a bad job handling claims.
Even if insurers are allowed to raise rates, that won’t stabilize the market until Citizens is changed back into a company of last resort instead of what it is now–a big subsidy for cheap rates in South Florida.
Don’t apologize, but it’s NOT wrong.
I never said anything about being rich. I said he must be doing pretty well if he has more than just the roof over his head. I think we can both agree that it isn’t what you make, it’s what you keep. Which is less and less for most people these days. Unfortunately.
Just wondering….
Spirited industry discussion keeps us as professionals on our toes. It’s as important as running quotes and selling policies.
Like assessments on my auto policy for the Cat Fund of 1%, that can’t be disbuted or the fact that they will be there for many more years. What does my auto premium have to do with the Cat Fund other than most customers won’t complain about that tax on their bill that small they just think they had a rate increase. Let’s not forget that they can assess our auto premium up to 6% when Citizens fails again. These are Facts Melissa and notice they don’t use the word Tax, they call them assessments.
Ignoring the fact that rates are underpriced with the attitude of it’s ok because we can assess everyone later is the wrong thing for government official to think. Private Insurance does not have an assessment option, it they did they wouldn’t care what they charged up front either. He didn’t set anything strait here other than he has no solution. I hope the Federal Government knows his plan!!!