My policy was just renewed with UPC (and just paid it through my mortgage lender). Old policy expired tomorrow. I got shafted on the renewal (at least it feels like it). The policy total went up 57% from last year!!!!! If they are leaving the state, I feel like they are trying to take us for everything they can get. That hurts, especially in this economic climate. That’s going to add big $$ to my monthly payment when my escrow needs to be trued up. I guess it’s time to shop around again.
They dropped me on the 10/12/22 and the following week they doubled my premiums and extended a new policy. They good thing i wont renew after reading this article. Thank you
Tech enabled marketing is permitting opportunistic, unrelated third parties to initiate (manufacture) activity where none would have existed without data mining and analytics. Analytics are in play 24/7/365 and the data sellers are agnostics as to the use of the data. This permits litigation to come in torrents rather than drop by drop.
Example – it rains in Bradenton. You purchase all IP addresses and related info on a Bradenton zip code where the IP address has visited Lowes or Home Depot in past 18 months. Bingo! Tens of thousands of solicitation on potential “damages associated with the recent storm in your area.”
Opportunists are playing Moneyball and insurers are drawing straws to see who bats next. With the capability to initiate hundreds of suits in a short period of time, monitoring insurer solvency requires a set of questions and analytics that most insurers do not possess or maintain.
Totally new world, and it is spreading from FL to the SE states.
I totally agree that the hurricanes aren’t killing the Fl insurance market the lawyers and contractors are the real culprits.
The sooner we outlaw litigation in favor of arbitration and also outlaw “assignment of benefits”, we will have a chance to save the property insurance market.
Another one bites the dust… This is definitely a bad sign for the market in the next few months. It was one thing when a couple small companies went under since they probably didn’t have the resources to handle shocks in the market. It is entirely different when someone like FedNat or UPC, who are public companies with access to capital, throws in the towel. I wonder which domino will fall next?
So, who’s ready to apologize to Joe Petrelli and Demotech??? Certainly not the governor of Florida. Or Marco Rubio. The Florida regulators. Or the head of the Florida Agent’s group. They’re all strangely quiet. It’s well past time time for the Florida regulators to release their list of potentially troubled insurers (was at 27, wonder how many now?) so the world can see where this is heading?
No, they’ll buy time (they hope) by having Citizens act as a back stop, and kicking the can down past the 2024 elections and squarely into the laps of Florida taxpayers. Good luck, Floridians. You might want to sell now and head someplace more stable…say, a glacier or ice shelf in Greenland.
Apologize? I’m sorry but it seems like Demotech pulls these ratings a week before the companies stop writing and are declared insolvent. I know I’m exaggerating on the timeline but if you’re an agent can you honestly say that you can assure a policyholder that the Demotech rating is meaningful and should provide financial comfort? Sure, Demotech has provided advance notice on some of these insolvencies but they should know more than I do, it’s their business. I understand many factors are out of their control (reinsurance contracts, new capital) but that doesn’t change the fact about the only thing an agent can safely rely on is using them as a scapegoat when a company fails – “Mr. Policyholder, I am as surprised as you that your company is insolvent. Up until recently they had an “A” rating “.
Brewing a while now my friend. The signs have been flashing since they pulled the plug on writing New Business at the beginning of this year and reorganized subsidiaries due to surplus woes.
I renewed in June with a 50% increase in Georgia. Just received a cancellation notice (Sept. 23 to cancel Oct. 1), based on them pulling out of Georgia, giving me a weeks notice, and an offer to continue with another company at yet another 20% increase…The policy and Georgia law requires a 30 day notice along with a refund of unearned premium by the cancellation date (which is tis Saturday). But can only be cancelled for Fraud, substantial change in risk, or violation of the insured of any material terms of the policy. None of these conditions apply…They should be forced to wait until my nest renewal and give proper notice then…
So the rumors are true, you can indeed write yourself out of business.
Poe Group had already taught us that.
My policy was just renewed with UPC (and just paid it through my mortgage lender). Old policy expired tomorrow. I got shafted on the renewal (at least it feels like it). The policy total went up 57% from last year!!!!! If they are leaving the state, I feel like they are trying to take us for everything they can get. That hurts, especially in this economic climate. That’s going to add big $$ to my monthly payment when my escrow needs to be trued up. I guess it’s time to shop around again.
Unfortunately, insurance doesn’t work this way. We cannot charge what we want. There is a process and it gets approved by the state.
They dropped me on the 10/12/22 and the following week they doubled my premiums and extended a new policy. They good thing i wont renew after reading this article. Thank you
Tech enabled marketing is permitting opportunistic, unrelated third parties to initiate (manufacture) activity where none would have existed without data mining and analytics. Analytics are in play 24/7/365 and the data sellers are agnostics as to the use of the data. This permits litigation to come in torrents rather than drop by drop.
Example – it rains in Bradenton. You purchase all IP addresses and related info on a Bradenton zip code where the IP address has visited Lowes or Home Depot in past 18 months. Bingo! Tens of thousands of solicitation on potential “damages associated with the recent storm in your area.”
Opportunists are playing Moneyball and insurers are drawing straws to see who bats next. With the capability to initiate hundreds of suits in a short period of time, monitoring insurer solvency requires a set of questions and analytics that most insurers do not possess or maintain.
Totally new world, and it is spreading from FL to the SE states.
(Great example of this is the Litify Insurtech run by John Morgan, link: https://www.litify.com/customers/morgan-and-morgan/)
I totally agree that the hurricanes aren’t killing the Fl insurance market the lawyers and contractors are the real culprits.
The sooner we outlaw litigation in favor of arbitration and also outlaw “assignment of benefits”, we will have a chance to save the property insurance market.
Another one bites the dust… This is definitely a bad sign for the market in the next few months. It was one thing when a couple small companies went under since they probably didn’t have the resources to handle shocks in the market. It is entirely different when someone like FedNat or UPC, who are public companies with access to capital, throws in the towel. I wonder which domino will fall next?
Hint: there’s a handful of carriers yet to be affirmed by Demotech this quarter.
So, who’s ready to apologize to Joe Petrelli and Demotech??? Certainly not the governor of Florida. Or Marco Rubio. The Florida regulators. Or the head of the Florida Agent’s group. They’re all strangely quiet. It’s well past time time for the Florida regulators to release their list of potentially troubled insurers (was at 27, wonder how many now?) so the world can see where this is heading?
No, they’ll buy time (they hope) by having Citizens act as a back stop, and kicking the can down past the 2024 elections and squarely into the laps of Florida taxpayers. Good luck, Floridians. You might want to sell now and head someplace more stable…say, a glacier or ice shelf in Greenland.
Apologize? I’m sorry but it seems like Demotech pulls these ratings a week before the companies stop writing and are declared insolvent. I know I’m exaggerating on the timeline but if you’re an agent can you honestly say that you can assure a policyholder that the Demotech rating is meaningful and should provide financial comfort? Sure, Demotech has provided advance notice on some of these insolvencies but they should know more than I do, it’s their business. I understand many factors are out of their control (reinsurance contracts, new capital) but that doesn’t change the fact about the only thing an agent can safely rely on is using them as a scapegoat when a company fails – “Mr. Policyholder, I am as surprised as you that your company is insolvent. Up until recently they had an “A” rating “.
https://stpetecatalyst.com/upc-unlikely-to-rebound-lays-off-70-workers/
I’m a little late to the party but here were the ramifications. However, it sounds like this has been brewing at UPC for quite some time.
Brewing a while now my friend. The signs have been flashing since they pulled the plug on writing New Business at the beginning of this year and reorganized subsidiaries due to surplus woes.
I renewed in June with a 50% increase in Georgia. Just received a cancellation notice (Sept. 23 to cancel Oct. 1), based on them pulling out of Georgia, giving me a weeks notice, and an offer to continue with another company at yet another 20% increase…The policy and Georgia law requires a 30 day notice along with a refund of unearned premium by the cancellation date (which is tis Saturday). But can only be cancelled for Fraud, substantial change in risk, or violation of the insured of any material terms of the policy. None of these conditions apply…They should be forced to wait until my nest renewal and give proper notice then…