Floridians are still paying for the hurricanes of 2005 -- and the tab is growing. The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund soon could be tapping all state residents holding insurance policies to raise another $600 million to cover storm losses.
Allstate's nine insurance companies operating in Florida now are barred from writing new policies until Allstate fully complies with a state subpoena for documents and information.
The 13 insurers that took advantage of a low-cost loan program to pump up capital and write thousands of new policies are still sitting on millions of unused dollars.
The Florida Legislature on Thursday handed Citizens policyholders another 12-month rate-hike reprieve and regulators more power to police insurance companies.
Oops! Florida's Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty was in the middle of a news conference announcing that the First District Court of Appeal had denied Allstate's motion for a rehearing on the state's suspension of its license. Then he paused.
The Florida Senate passed a massive insurance bill with some consumer protections but no immediate steps to lower insurance rates.
An insurance bill making its way through the Senate now provides a small break for homeowners covered by the state-run insurer but ramps up regulation for private insurers operating in Florida.
Some lawmakers are inclined to give homeowners covered by the state-run insurer another break on rate increases next year. But Alex Sink, Florida's chief financial officer, said it's ''not wise to extend the rate freeze'' on Citizens Property Insurance any further. She would like to see Citizens have rates in place that give it a greater chance to amass enough reserves to pay claims in the future.
After years of defying court orders and racking up fines, Allstate has released about 150,000 pages of documents it had staunchly protected as proprietary.
A bill will hit the floor of the state House of Representatives Wednesday that proposes to use $250 million from the state-run insurer's reserves to fund a capital-buildup program for young or start-up insurance companies.
