Since last month, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has approved requests from eight insurance carriers to assume 232,535 personal residential multiperil policies and 2,500 residential wind-only policies from Citizens Property Insurance Corp., according to consent orders issued by the regulator.
American Integrity Insurance Co requested the largest share of policies in this latest round, seeking to take over 75,000 residential multiperil policies.
According to a report from AM Best, other companies participating in the residential multiperil policy takeout include Orange Insurance Exchange (15,000), Typtap Insurance Co (25,000), Slide Insurance Co (15,000), Monarch National Insurance Co (25,000), and Trident Reciprocal Exchange (16,035).
Manatee Insurance Exchange was approved to take out 1,500 residential wind-only policies along with 37,500 residential multiperil policies. Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Co requested 1,000 wind-only policies and 24,000 multiperil policies.
Attempts to reach American Integrity, Slide, and Homeowners Choice for comment were unsuccessful.
This latest round of takeouts follows earlier activity from some of the same insurers. In July, Slide was approved to assume 75,000 residential multiperil policies, while Manatee was authorized to take out 75,000 residential multiperil policies, 2,000 commercial nonresidential wind-only policies, and 1,000 commercial nonresidential multiperil policies.
The approved takeouts come in the wake of an August report by the Florida Auditor General, which highlighted the need for Citizens to improve its underwriting and eligibility controls.
The report, which reviewed the carrier's customer service, claims handling, internal audits, and information technology systems, said that Citizens should enhance its processes to ensure policies comply with statutory coverage limits.
As part of the policy takeout process, private carriers must offer replacement coverage that is priced no more than 20% higher than the Citizens rate, according to the insurer of last resort.
Policyholders are also given a deadline to accept or reject the new offer, and those who do not respond are automatically assigned to the private insurer with the lowest estimated premium.
As of Sept. 6, Citizens had 1.252 million policies in force, a slight increase from 1.25 million on Aug. 31.
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