Florida Approves Plan to Move Citizens Policies to Insurers

State regulators are moving ahead with plans to shift as many as 184,000 policies from Citizens Property Insurance to private insurers.

Slide Insurance Co., Safepoint Insurance Co., Southern Oak Insurance Co., Florida Peninsula Insurance Co. and Monarch National Insurance Co. could take over as many as 100,000 policies held by state-backed Citizens starting in mid-October, the News Service of Florida reported. Those insurers will be able to pick which policies they assume.

As private insurers continue to pull back from writing new policies in the state, Citizens has become the largest insurer in Florida with 18 percent of the market, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Citizens had 1.34 million policies as of last week, up 175 percent compared to the volume of policies it held at the end of 2020. The state is trying to transfer some of the risk associated with Citizens’ market share in case of a major hurricane or multiple storms.

Citizens’ customers are required to accept coverage from private insurers if it’s within 20 percent of the cost of Citizens policies, thanks to changes in state law that were passed in December. That means they may have to pay more for coverage from a private insurer.

Those five private insurers could assume as many as 184,000 policies, but they likely won’t, the News Service reported.

— Katherine Kallergis