Florida Citizens news

Reinsurance capacity for lower-layers of Florida focused towers is expected to become very limited in 2023, while renewal rates are likely to rise above expectations, according to Citizens Property Insurance Corporation CEO Barry Gilway.

Florida’s property insurer of last resort Citizens Property Insurance Corporation said Friday that it is now estimating a hurricane Ian claim-count of around 100,000, down dramatically from its earlier assessment of a burden of over 225,000 claims being anticipated.

Barry Gilway, the CEO of Florida’s property insurer of last resort Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, told analysts at KBW that his current best-estimate for the insurance industry loss from hurricane Ian is just $40 billion.

While Florida’s insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, has provided a range of projected estimated losses from hurricane Ian of between $2.3 billion and $2.6 billion, if the average claims cost comes in around the levels of 2017’s hurricane Irma, the data could suggest a loss far higher.

Florida’s insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, has tightened its estimated range of losses from hurricane Ian, now saying it expects them to fall at between $2.3 billion and $2.6 billion, at which level its private reinsurance recoveries would be small, if any, while its Everglades Re catastrophe bonds could be safe.

Analysts at KBRA have said that in order to stabilise the troubled Florida property insurance marketplace, there’s a need for some decisive and coordinated action by various stakeholders, as carriers in the state are faced with a myriad of challenges.

The temporary reinsurance arrangement for downgrade-challenged carriers announced last week by Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) will not put the risk transfer arrangements of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation on the hook for any claims or losses through the scheme.

Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the property insurer of last resort in the state, continues to work on filling out its reinsurance towers for the 2022 wind season, a process that has been a particular struggle given the challenging reinsurance market environment.

In an exclusive interview with Artemis, Joseph Petrelli, President and Co-Founder of rating agency and consultant Demotech, Inc. explained that the special session reforms passed by the Florida legislature last week are “inadequate”, when measured against what the state really needs to fix its property insurance marketplace.

Progress on property insurance reform continues in the state of Florida, with the first bill from the special session now passing through the legislature having been approved on the House floor, to now make its way to the Governor for signing.