On the heels of the Florida property insurance market’s most profitable year in nine years — despite three hurricanes hitting the state in 2024 — opening an insurance business is getting more popular.
Two new insurers are poised to offer Sunshine State homeowners more options.
State regulators’ approval of Viceroy Preferred Insurance for writing policies in the state and the permitting of another, Vision Insurance Exchange, will mark the 15th and 16th new insurers to increase competition among property insurers since the market threatened to melt down in 2022.
Just three years ago, lawmakers were called in for two special legislative sessions to shore up the property insurance market battered by the state’s vulnerability to hurricanes, the high number of lawsuits involving disputed insurance claims and the soaring cost of capital to insurance companies looking to fortify their back-up money for when catastrophic levels of claims hit.
Wobbly property insurance market
Not only had nine insurance companies gone insolvent between 2019 and 2022, dozens of the existing companies were facing a ratings downgrade from a crucial credit ratings agency. That downgrade could have left homeowners unable to meet their lenders’ insurance requirements.
United Property & Casualty was ordered into liquidation in 2023, making it 10 insurance companies collapsed under the weight of those factors in four years.
But now, fortified by the state’s new rules that limit insurers’ exposure to lawsuits in policyholder disputes and better availability of catastrophic insurance capital, the tide has turned. Those defunct insurers have been replaced in addition to six more rounding out the offerings.
Mark Friedlander, senior director of media relations for the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute, says the turnaround proves man-made factors spawned the crisis of a few years ago, more than anything coming off the coast of Africa.
“Insurers want to do business in Florida because of the vast improvement in the market’s environment due to legislative reforms that addressed legal system abuse and assignment of benefits claim fraud,” Friedlander said.
The legislative changes prohibit attorney fees from being automatically added to a litigated settlement, thus decreasing attorneys’ incentive to take the cases and making it more difficult for policyholders to dispute their insurer’s offer to settle a claim. Prohibiting assignment of benefits agreements was designed to stop contractors from inflating repair bills to sue in the policyholder’s name.
“Now insurers are confident they can write profitable business in all areas of the state,” Friedlander added in an email. “Further, consumers are benefitting from a competitive market with vastly improved pricing.”
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation reported Aug. 21 that 29 homeowner companies have filed for a rate decrease and 44 companies have requested no change or a 0% increase. Still, the latest poll of active Republican voters from the University of North Florida released in July show the biggest proportion of respondents rated property insurance as their biggest concern, ahead of housing costs and immigration.
Here’s what to know about the Florida newest entrants into the market:
Both insurers have current or former ties to existing companies
Viceroy Preferred Insurance shares officers and a Tallahassee address with Monarch National Insurance Company, which has been offering condo and homeowner policies in Florida since 2015.
Roger Desjadon, CEO of the fledgling Vision Insurance Exchange, was the CEO of Floria Peninsula Insurance Co., based in Boca Raton, for nearly 18 years, according to his LinkedIn page. Vision’s CFO, Francis Lattanzio co-founded the Boca insurer and served as CFO until 2021, according to the trade publication, Insurance Journal.
New companies will write throughout Florida — but likely not in Monroe County
Vision’s webpage says that the company, at its launch, will be offering insurance throughout Florida, excluding Monroe County, also known as the Florida Keys, where the state’s insurer of last resort, the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp., writes all but a tiny fraction of the wind coverage. Viceroy Preferred Insurance officials say they have filed a plan for every Florida county with state regulators, but the plan is to focus on the East Coast of Florida and inland parts of the state.
“Monroe is not a county that best aligns with our proposed appetite,” Kerrie Ruland, senior vice president with Monarch National Insurance Company, wrote in an email.
Some policyholders may be switched to Vision’s coverage, whether they choose it or not
On its website, Vision says it will be taking the first of its Citizens’ “takeouts” starting in November. Citizens, which insures more Florida property than any other company, is looking to pare down and transfer policyholders to the private market. Citizens’ policyholders are obliged to make the switch if the proffered coverage is no more than 20% of the cost of their Citizens’ premium.
Viceroy will not be a Citizens takeout company.
Anne Geggis is the insurance reporter at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at ageggis@gannett.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today
