The Florida Department of Financial Services, without a department head since April – after Jimmy Patronis was elected to Congress – has a new chief financial officer in the form of Blaise Ingoglia, a millionaire home builder and recent state legislator.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the appointment Wednesday. Ingoglia is expected to face opposition next spring in the election to the post. State Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, has already been endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump, according to news reports.
Meanwhile, as CFO, Ingoglia, 54, will have some influence over Florida’s property insurance market. The DFS oversees the Office of Insurance Regulation and handles agent licensing and investigations into fraud by agents, adjusters and others. Ingoglia is considered a conservative but has not been seen as particularly friendly with property insurance companies. This week, he talked tough about carriers at a news conference:
“I want the insurance companies to listen … if an insurance company does not do what they say they’re going to do and are contractually obligated to do, I am going to call you out,” he said, according to the Orlando Sentinel news site.
He also attributed the rise in premiums in recent years to the higher replacement costs for homes and to fraudulent claims. He did not specify excessive litigation as a reason, but in late 2022 he voted in favor of Senate Bill 2A, the landmark legislation that ended one-way attorney fees, which disincentivized claims lawsuits. Ingoglia was elected to the state Senate in 2022 after eight years in the House.
In this spring’s legislative session Igoglia served as chair of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee. He co-sponsored one insurance-related bill, which would have set limits on the My Safe Florida Home wind-mitigation grant program, would have required extra surplus for new insurers, and would have tightened restrictions on officers of insolvent carriers. The bill passed his committee but died in the Senate Agriculture, Environment and General Government committee.
Ingoglia, owner of Heartland Homes, a major builder in Florida, also voted in favor of Senate Bill 360 in 2023, legislative records show. The law reduced the statute of limitations on lawsuits on construction defects by builders, from 10 years to seven. That rankled some insurers and insurance attorneys that have relied on subrogation lawsuits when claims arise from poor construction. Many problems do not manifest themselves until after seven years, attorneys have said.
The new CFO, a ranked poker player with more than $400,000 in winnings, according to news sites, this week also vowed to reduce government spending and to support an end to property taxes in the state.
“I am going to be a proactive fiscal watchdog for Florida,” Ingoglia said, the Associated Press reported. “I’ve had a history of calling out wasteful spending, whether it’s Democrats or Republicans.”
Ingoglia is originally from the New York City borough of Queens and moved to Florida in 1996, according to his biography. Patronis now represents a congressional district in the Florida Panhandle that was vacated by Matt Gaetz before his ill-fated attempt to become Trump’s attorney general.
Photo: Ingoglia on the Senate floor in 2023. AP Photo/Phil Sears
Topics Property
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.