Insurance customers are price sensitive customers, and the struggling economy has made consumers even more price sensitive.

Observers are worried that insurance coverage is becoming so standard that customers do not even keep their needs and their necessary insurance coverage in mind. Instead customers are just picking the cheapest policy or given coverage without regard of brand, the reputation of the company, the insurance coverage and insurance coverage features. Agent are starting to notice that it used to be easier to sell better insurance coverage at a high cost, but because of the down turn in the economy most consumers only care about cost. 25% of independent agents reported that their customer almost always go with the cheapest policy, at least 90% of the time. One agent said companies are so impressed with themselves and their coverage that they have lost touch of what the consumer really wants and that is the lowest price. Unfortunately, the name, coverage's, and the service make no difference to the customer.

New research is showing that cases of the consumer picking the cheapest insurance are becoming less common. Carriers can compete with other...

Citizen's Property Insurance Corporation was founded 10 years ago to be Florida's property insurance carrier of last resort.  Since that time, many carriers in FL have vacated the marketplace and currently Citizen's is the largest property insurance carrier in the state with over 1.5 Million policies in force and growing at a rate of 1,000 new policies per day.  Governor Scott and FL lawmakers have recently made a substantial push to limit the size of Citizen's by reducing coverage's on the policy such as removing screened enclosure coverage, and limiting the dwelling coverage amount to $1M (which is drastic reduction from the previous $2M cap). 

Another way for the size of Citizen's to be reduced is by a method known as "Depopulation" in which standard insurance carriers like Florida Peninsula Insurance Company, or Southern Fidelity Insurance Company (just to name two) petition Citizen's to assume some of the policies from the insurer of last resort.  Typically, this is a good thing from a consumer standpoint because the standard carrier’s policy form includes...

Currently, Citzen's Property Insurance Corp is FL's largest property insurance carrier with over 1.5 million policies and it continues to grow by about 1,000 policies a day.   It's total exposure is estimated at $500 BILLION and as we stand currently, Citizen's only has the capability to pay roughly $16.7 Billion in the event of a major catastrophic storm.   In May 2011 Senate Bill 408 was made law which was the most sweeping insurance regulation in FL in over 20 years.  One of the provisions of the bill mandated that Citizen's take a closer look at their ever growing business model with the intention to reduce it's overall size and exposure.  These steps have begun to be put into action and in a recent proposal to Governor Scott and other state leaders, Citizen's laid out some of the strategies for limiting coverage and shrinking their exposure.  The following are a few highlights of the 31 proposed changes:

• Adding a 10% (of the Dwelling value) sinkhole deductible.
• Capping Dwelling coverage on high value homes to $1Million. 
• Reducing Personal Liability coverage from $300,000 to...

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Today Citizen's announced a major change to it's policy that will take effect January 1, 2012.th  Several policy limitations and/or exclusions will be added to renewals after this date.  The following are a list of the changes:

• Screened enclosures that are aluminum framed or not covered by the same or substantially the same materials as that of the primary dwelling
• Carports that are aluminum or not covered by the same or substantially the same materials as that of the primary dwelling
• Patios that have a roof covering not constructed of the same or substantially the same materials as that of the primary dwelling
• Awnings
• Structures with a roof or wall covering that are thatch, lattice, slats or a similar material
• Slat houses, chickees, tiki huts, gazebos, cabanas, canopies, pergolas or similar structures constructed to be open to the weather

This move by Citizens is an attempt to detract policyholders from maintaining coverage with the carrier, limit Citizen's "Maximum Probable Loss" and hopefully shed some of the policies that Citizen's has recently taken on.  Citizen's is...

9/23/2011

This week Commissioner McCarthy of the FL Office of Insurance Regulation ruled that the proposed Citizen's rate hike for sinkhole coverage of over 400% was unwarranted and they failed to provide a valid argument of why these rates needed to rise so drastically.  Mccarthy pointed out that Citizen's failed to acknowledge how the newly passed legislation pertaining to sinkhole claims would impact the amount of claims that come into the carrier.  McCarthy didn't feel the proposed rate increase was valid and he in turned granted an average statewide increase of 32.8%.  Residents here in the Pasco county area should see an increase of roughly 10% (of the previously sinkhole premium attributed to the policy).  Residents and homeowner's can breath a sigh of relief that the proposed rate hike isn't going to be taking place!