In theory, current Citizens could see a 25% increase in their premiums. Citizens can go up by 10%, and if a company in the clearinghouse is withing 15%, they must take it.
Our agency shops out our Citizens clients, but they won’t switch from Citizens if the price is higher, no matter how much better the coverage is. Now we get to sell 25% increases. Wow!
Hopefully this clearing house doesn’t make the process harder. So many of our stantard carriers won’t write within 1500 to 2500 feet of tidal water (coastal county)or are easily already way over 15% higher than Citizens. At least the agencies will retain the business which is a plus. I would be happy to not write Citizens but in my county the house is either too old, too close to water or in a completely closed zip code or the alternative is, in some cases, 50% plus higher than Citizens. Yet these same companies will take the client out of Citizens in a heartbeat by assumption.
I’m in a coastal county, one of the big 3 that carriers love to hate. Very few homes fall into the too old, too close, closed zip code or 50% higher category. Condition is a problem for some of the homes, sure. The bigger problem is those who won’t jump to a private carrier that’s only 10% higher. The politicians have made Citizens too attractive and it’s got to stop.
Charlie froze rates and made Citizens competitive, yes. The fact that no one has done anything about it even when presented the chance makes it more than just Charlie.
Mr Solvent – Can I please have the names and contacts for the companies that you are appointed and writing with for the too old, too close to shore, closed zip codes that I am running into with my companies … :) I am constantly trying to find market alternatives to Citizens but no one wants to Appt in Broward. Yet as stated by others those same companies offer assumptions. Why not just let the agents write direct and cut out all the extra work with takeout processes…
I don’t advocate naming specific carriers but I will in this instance give you a few. Universal Insurance Company of North America writes non-windpool business and they’re a stable company. You also have Universal P&C writing to 30 years on the HO3. Federated National has no distance to coast requirements if the risk fits their model properly. These carriers I know will all appoint in Broward.
There are also some less experienced carriers writing and appointing agents in the county. Keep checking underwriting guidelines of your existing carriers too. Many agents I run into are stuck with old thinking even though carriers frequently change.
As far as takeout business, I can’t make heads or tails of it. Why any carrier would want to take sloppy seconds from Citizens instead of underwriting the risk fresh is beyond me.
Thanks – Mr Solvent … I write for UPC and Federated already. :) the segment I am stuck on is those under $200k-$250k in coverage and more than 30 yrs old. We get some to approve with Fed if over $250k in Coverage but there is a big older market of homes built in the 70s- early 80s that just seem like they have no option but Citizens. and I Totally agree with the Takeout business – Makes no sense at all, but then again it has been a long time since the insurance market made sense in Florida.
May 9, 2013 at 11:31 am
Mr. Solvent says:
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Definitely go for Universal NA for those $200K to $250K risks, especially if they have hurricane opening protection.
all the High-Risk properties will stay with Citizens and the properties away from the water may probably go to the private market, the private market will pick and choose the best risks
When the Categorie 5 Hurricane hits all the private insurers will be declared insolvent and once again Everyone back to Citizens
“WHO NEEDS AM Best WHEN YOU HAVE DEMOTECH”
Have you noticed how most of the private insurers in Florida are not rated by AM Best?
they are given a fictitious rating from this company called Demotech.
The A+ XV rating given by Demotech to all those “Michey Mouse” private companies is pure fiction
I have been appointed with federated national for about 3 years and they’ve stopped writing in the tri-county for over a year. Also the policies you write they underwrite every year and many of them get non renew for risk exposure. I’ll try Universal of north America to see if they are appointing. The truth of the matter here is that all these new changes coming from citizens are going to affect agencies and their employees, many agents are going to close doors and many employees are going to loose their jobs.
So negative Jay. I assure you, Federated is taking tri-county business. Non renewals are a part of life in this part of Florida. The clearinghouse should help, not hurt your business. If you’ve got a big Citizens book you should be thrilled that renewals are going through the clearinghouse as well.
Mr. Solvent, I just spoke to Audrey an underwriter in Federated and they have not been taking new business in the tri-county area for almost 2 years now. You must be one of the selected few that knows something that the typical ethical agent does not know, and that is a problem for me. I have been an agent for many years and still is very hard to get appointed with any carrier out there specially if you are an agent in the tri-county area. We sent appointment packages every month to every single writing Homeowners carrier in florida and we get rejected 100% all the time. I will ask you if you know how to get writing appointments with writing homeowners carriers in the try-county area to please share it, but I guess you won’t.
I’ll share with you how to get appointments Jay. You can’t just fill out appointment paperwork and send it to the marketing department. You need to know who the VP of marketing is for each company you wish to get an appointment from. Contact them by phone at a minimum or in person if at all possible. You have to tell them why your agency is valuable to their company. Then you don’t take no for an answer. You continue to follow up on a regular basis. You can’t do the same thing over and over and expect different results.
That said, if you have a high loss ratio or low production with your existing carriers no one will talk to you.
And to finalize, how dare you question my ethics? My agency is a ground-up agency. We have no book purchases, no agency takeovers, ethics is all we have.
Back to Federated National, go ahead to their agency locator and take an agency poll about tri-county business.
Mr. Solvent. Once and for all, I just got off the phone with 3 agents in Broward County who showed in the Agent locator like at Federated National and asked them if they were writing any business in the tri-county area and the answer was NO and it has been NO for sometime, So if you are writing business while nobody else can, that is really good but very hard to understand. Good luck to you and your Ground-up agency.
Jay –
I am an agent in Broward county also and have been writing with and continue to write home insurance with Federated National. As long as the risk meets the guidelines and you get submit approval you should be good to go. it might be a little more work to quote and submit but they are open to new business. Mr solvent is not the only one writing with Federted.
SFL, I called again today and spoke with a different marketing rep, that told me that only those known to Marketing Manager Marty Kramer were selected to be part of a small list of agents that could write with Federated National, unfortunately the marketing rep that helped us get on board did not have the final saying on who should be on that list, it was all up to Marty Kramer, who decided to leave us out, even though our Loss Ratio was at zero and production was getting pretty good. We’ve moved on and also have moved most of the business to other carriers, but the message here is that, this can happen to you or any other agent that is not in with the big boys. Florida is a very shameful place to be an insurance agent and the DOI will not do anything against this type of injustices, they will continue to happen until the internet replaces every manager.
You sound like a spoiled child Jay. You just want everything handed to you on a silver platter. You have no place in this business. If it’s so bad, sell your book and get out. Our industry doesn’t need lazy, negative agents. If you spent 1/2 of the time and effort on your business that you spend complaining maybe carriers would take you seriously.
How out of touch do you have to be not to know what your competitors are doing? Then your response is to complain instead of doing something? Lame. Go get a job while you’re still employable.
In theory, current Citizens could see a 25% increase in their premiums. Citizens can go up by 10%, and if a company in the clearinghouse is withing 15%, they must take it.
Our agency shops out our Citizens clients, but they won’t switch from Citizens if the price is higher, no matter how much better the coverage is. Now we get to sell 25% increases. Wow!
Should be a good thing to your bottom line Cheetoh. It should also provide consumers with a better product at a comparable price.
Hopefully this clearing house doesn’t make the process harder. So many of our stantard carriers won’t write within 1500 to 2500 feet of tidal water (coastal county)or are easily already way over 15% higher than Citizens. At least the agencies will retain the business which is a plus. I would be happy to not write Citizens but in my county the house is either too old, too close to water or in a completely closed zip code or the alternative is, in some cases, 50% plus higher than Citizens. Yet these same companies will take the client out of Citizens in a heartbeat by assumption.
I’m in a coastal county, one of the big 3 that carriers love to hate. Very few homes fall into the too old, too close, closed zip code or 50% higher category. Condition is a problem for some of the homes, sure. The bigger problem is those who won’t jump to a private carrier that’s only 10% higher. The politicians have made Citizens too attractive and it’s got to stop.
When you say politicians, you mean Charlie Crist. A competitive Citizens was his little brainchild.
Charlie froze rates and made Citizens competitive, yes. The fact that no one has done anything about it even when presented the chance makes it more than just Charlie.
I would go even further and say that Charlie lowered rates through mitigation credits.
Mr Solvent – Can I please have the names and contacts for the companies that you are appointed and writing with for the too old, too close to shore, closed zip codes that I am running into with my companies … :) I am constantly trying to find market alternatives to Citizens but no one wants to Appt in Broward. Yet as stated by others those same companies offer assumptions. Why not just let the agents write direct and cut out all the extra work with takeout processes…
I don’t advocate naming specific carriers but I will in this instance give you a few. Universal Insurance Company of North America writes non-windpool business and they’re a stable company. You also have Universal P&C writing to 30 years on the HO3. Federated National has no distance to coast requirements if the risk fits their model properly. These carriers I know will all appoint in Broward.
There are also some less experienced carriers writing and appointing agents in the county. Keep checking underwriting guidelines of your existing carriers too. Many agents I run into are stuck with old thinking even though carriers frequently change.
As far as takeout business, I can’t make heads or tails of it. Why any carrier would want to take sloppy seconds from Citizens instead of underwriting the risk fresh is beyond me.
Thanks – Mr Solvent … I write for UPC and Federated already. :) the segment I am stuck on is those under $200k-$250k in coverage and more than 30 yrs old. We get some to approve with Fed if over $250k in Coverage but there is a big older market of homes built in the 70s- early 80s that just seem like they have no option but Citizens. and I Totally agree with the Takeout business – Makes no sense at all, but then again it has been a long time since the insurance market made sense in Florida.
Definitely go for Universal NA for those $200K to $250K risks, especially if they have hurricane opening protection.
this is adverse selection 101
all the High-Risk properties will stay with Citizens and the properties away from the water may probably go to the private market, the private market will pick and choose the best risks
When the Categorie 5 Hurricane hits all the private insurers will be declared insolvent and once again Everyone back to Citizens
“WHO NEEDS AM Best WHEN YOU HAVE DEMOTECH”
Have you noticed how most of the private insurers in Florida are not rated by AM Best?
they are given a fictitious rating from this company called Demotech.
The A+ XV rating given by Demotech to all those “Michey Mouse” private companies is pure fiction
I have been appointed with federated national for about 3 years and they’ve stopped writing in the tri-county for over a year. Also the policies you write they underwrite every year and many of them get non renew for risk exposure. I’ll try Universal of north America to see if they are appointing. The truth of the matter here is that all these new changes coming from citizens are going to affect agencies and their employees, many agents are going to close doors and many employees are going to loose their jobs.
So negative Jay. I assure you, Federated is taking tri-county business. Non renewals are a part of life in this part of Florida. The clearinghouse should help, not hurt your business. If you’ve got a big Citizens book you should be thrilled that renewals are going through the clearinghouse as well.
Mr. Solvent, I just spoke to Audrey an underwriter in Federated and they have not been taking new business in the tri-county area for almost 2 years now. You must be one of the selected few that knows something that the typical ethical agent does not know, and that is a problem for me. I have been an agent for many years and still is very hard to get appointed with any carrier out there specially if you are an agent in the tri-county area. We sent appointment packages every month to every single writing Homeowners carrier in florida and we get rejected 100% all the time. I will ask you if you know how to get writing appointments with writing homeowners carriers in the try-county area to please share it, but I guess you won’t.
I’ll share with you how to get appointments Jay. You can’t just fill out appointment paperwork and send it to the marketing department. You need to know who the VP of marketing is for each company you wish to get an appointment from. Contact them by phone at a minimum or in person if at all possible. You have to tell them why your agency is valuable to their company. Then you don’t take no for an answer. You continue to follow up on a regular basis. You can’t do the same thing over and over and expect different results.
That said, if you have a high loss ratio or low production with your existing carriers no one will talk to you.
And to finalize, how dare you question my ethics? My agency is a ground-up agency. We have no book purchases, no agency takeovers, ethics is all we have.
Back to Federated National, go ahead to their agency locator and take an agency poll about tri-county business.
Testing
Mr. Solvent. Once and for all, I just got off the phone with 3 agents in Broward County who showed in the Agent locator like at Federated National and asked them if they were writing any business in the tri-county area and the answer was NO and it has been NO for sometime, So if you are writing business while nobody else can, that is really good but very hard to understand. Good luck to you and your Ground-up agency.
Jay –
I am an agent in Broward county also and have been writing with and continue to write home insurance with Federated National. As long as the risk meets the guidelines and you get submit approval you should be good to go. it might be a little more work to quote and submit but they are open to new business. Mr solvent is not the only one writing with Federted.
that’s because he is writing with the Other Federated
“We’re not getting the hole loaf here,” said Senator David Simmons. “We’re getting Citizens’ lite.”
I couldn’t get past the glaring typo in this article – hole loaf? Oi ve!
SFL, I called again today and spoke with a different marketing rep, that told me that only those known to Marketing Manager Marty Kramer were selected to be part of a small list of agents that could write with Federated National, unfortunately the marketing rep that helped us get on board did not have the final saying on who should be on that list, it was all up to Marty Kramer, who decided to leave us out, even though our Loss Ratio was at zero and production was getting pretty good. We’ve moved on and also have moved most of the business to other carriers, but the message here is that, this can happen to you or any other agent that is not in with the big boys. Florida is a very shameful place to be an insurance agent and the DOI will not do anything against this type of injustices, they will continue to happen until the internet replaces every manager.
You sound like a spoiled child Jay. You just want everything handed to you on a silver platter. You have no place in this business. If it’s so bad, sell your book and get out. Our industry doesn’t need lazy, negative agents. If you spent 1/2 of the time and effort on your business that you spend complaining maybe carriers would take you seriously.
How out of touch do you have to be not to know what your competitors are doing? Then your response is to complain instead of doing something? Lame. Go get a job while you’re still employable.