Citizens is shedding thousands of policyholders. How could that affect your insurance?
Thousands of Florida property owners will likely lose their Citizens Property Insurance Corp. policies.
Citizens, the insurer of last resort in Florida, will shed as many as 184,000 policies starting in October after regulators this week approved proposals to move these policies to different insurance companies.
Here’s what you may be wondering about the changes:
Why are policies shifting?
Florida officials want to move Citizens policies into the private market due to the financial risks associated with possible major hurricanes. The state is grappling with an insurance crisis, with costs nearly triple the national average.
As private insurers drop customers, raise rates and even leave the state, Citizens’ policy count has soared to about 1.34 million policies, compared to 486,773 in July 2020.
Where will policyholders go?
The proposal approved this week means that Citizens policies could be pulled as soon as Oct. 17. The plan anticipates that:
▪ Slide, a Tampa-based insurer founded in 2021, could claim 100,000 policies;
▪ Safepoint, a Tampa-area insurer founded in 2013, 30,000 policies;
▪ Southern Oak, a Jacksonville-area insurer founded in 2004, 25,000 policies;
▪ Florida Peninsula, a Boca Raton-based insurer founded in 2005, 19,000 policies;
▪ Monarch, a South Florida-area insurer founded in 2015, 10,000 policies.
KNOW MORE: Will you lose your Citizens insurance policy? What to know about possible changes
How could this affect you?
Not all targeted policyholders will be transferred from Citizens to private insurers. But a change approved by the state Legislature in December might push customers away from Citizens.
The change requires homeowners to accept private insurers’ offers of coverage if they’re within 20% of the cost of Citizens premiums. That means you might end up dishing out even more for coverage.
