Florida Approves Southern Oak Take-Out of 10,000 Policies from Citizens

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) said it has approved the removal of up to 10,000 multi-peril personal residential policies from the state-backed property insurer Citizens Property Insurance Corp. by Southern Oak Insurance Co.

Southern Oak requested in April to remove 8,500 policies from Citizens’ personal lines account (non-coastal properties) and 1,500 from the coastal account (coastal properties) for the September 16, 2014 take-out period, according to OIR.

This is part of the state’s ongoing effort to reduce the number of policies in Citizens and transfer them into the private insurance market. OIR said this announcement brings the total number of policies approved for take-outs this year to 369,341.

Polices approved for removal are not all necessarily eliminated from Citizens inventory. The policyholder has the choice to remain with Citizens. Policyholders choosing to be transferred have a lower risk of being charged higher amounts for Citizens assessments. To date, 110,671 policies have been removed from Citizens.

Southern Oak, based in Ponte Vedra, distributes its homeowners, renters, condo unit owner and rental dwelling policies through independent agents. The insurer was licensed in December, 2004.

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Topics Florida