Florida insurance and reinsurance market news

Two of the tech-focused insurance start-ups operating in the Florida homeowners market have successfully completed their catastrophe reinsurance renewal placements, with both Kin and Slide citing strong support.

The upcoming Florida reinsurance renewals at June 1st are seen as progressing well and at a good pace, despite the hard market environment, with capacity seen as sufficient to enable programs to clear, analysts at JMP Securities have said.

The Board of Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation approved a slightly smaller budget for its reinsurance and capital market risk transfer purchases than expected yesterday, but market conditions are improved somewhat it seems and, while pricing is higher, the insurer of last resort is seeing positive momentum, especially with catastrophe bonds.

Catastrophe reinsurance providers hold most of the cards for the impending Florida renewals at June 1st, with even legislative efforts to improve the situation “missing the mark” in some cases, a market update from Stonybrook Capital states.

Legislative changes undertaken to reform the Florida property insurance space have “mitigated some of the investor and reinsurer negative sentiment” surrounding exposure in the state, according to United Insurance Holdings Corporation CEO Dan Peed.

The third session of the day at our Artemis ILS NYC 2023 conference, held in New York on February 10th 2023, saw industry leaders discussing the Florida insurance and reinsurance market, exploring the state of play and how it come overcome some of the challenges that are faced.

With reinsurance rates expected to continue rising in Florida at the mid-year renewals and those gains will be on top of the pricing improvements see a year earlier, Everest Re’s Group COO and Head of Reinsurance Jim Williamson has explained that the economics of business written will be “outstanding” at June 1st.

At the fast-approaching June 1st reinsurance renewals, Florida focused insurance carriers are facing a “no-win situation”, with rate increases of as much as 50% expected, according to ALIRT Insurance Research.

Florida’s property insurance carriers face a challenging final few weeks up to their main reinsurance renewal and some insurers are taking steps to lower their exposure through the restriction of coverage, or availability of their policies, we’re told.

Having visited the United Kingdom last week, one of the locations on Governor of Florida state Ron DeSantis’ agenda was an event co-hosted by Lloyd’s of London where he met with reinsurance leaders to try and press home the improved situation in the Florida property insurance marketplace.