WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The number of policies on Citizens Insurance is rising as Florida enters the second month of hurricane season, with just over 1.2 million policies.
The number represents a slow rise since Memorial Day, when there were about 20,000 fewer policies.
“YOU EVER NOTICE HOW INSURANCE COMPANIES GO OUT OF FLORIDA IN JUNE?” asked Taylor in Boynton in an email.
Private insurers do seem to be shedding policies with non-renewals leaving many homeowners with no choice but to go to Citizens.
“It’s due to balancing risk and making sure that we’re not overly concentrated and the cost of reinsurance,” said Tom Gallagher, COO at People’s Trust, during WPTV’s Recent Coverage Collapse special.
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Citizens is still trying to lower its policy count and its potential exposure to large claims during what is predicted to be an active hurricane season.
“We’re going to slow as we get into hurricane season, you don’t have the takeouts that you see, so our actual policy count will tick up again what we expect but, in the fall when the takeouts resume towards the end of hurricane season, we should start to come down,” says Citizens CEO Tim Cerio.
Last year Citizens managed to move 275,000 policies to private insurance through the takeout program which in many cases has homeowners paying more for the private insurance.
This year 132,000 policies have been moved.
If you have a question or comment on insurance, email me at matt.sczesny@wptv.com.