Hurricane Updates


How do you like being w/ an Insurer who says go away, I do not want you anymore. This is like a bad Girlfriend and will hurt. My prior posts will explain what Citizens is trying to do until Legislative change occurs in 2012. By order of  Governor Rick Scott and CFO Jeff Atwater, Citizens is doing everything they can to make your experience a bad one and to raise prices as well and any way they can including new Mitigation  Inspections to raise additional premiums. Private Insurer’s need to come back to the marketplace and depopulations will need to get back into high gear to make this happen. Citizens has nearly 1.5 Million policy holders and they want this reduced by 50% or more soon. Hurricane season is just around the corner so the activity is hot and heavy while the Legislators in Tallahassee & are in session to make this happen and quickly. Please call L & S Insurance for all of your Home, Auto, Flood, Business & Commercial, and even Life Insurance coverage.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2012/01/18/231560.htm

Lot’s of changes will be occuring, but the thought is that the affect may not be so great. There are lot’s of changes that can and should be made, but is requires the Legislators in Tallahassee to do it. This year will have Re districting as a big issue and then Home Insurance issues and PIP Fraud will be major Highlites. Personally, I do not see Legislators in Fort Lauderdale or any other area voting for the real change that is needed. This change would be significant premium  increases like 25-30% statewide averages! That could mean 50-60% here in Fort lauderdale and S. Florida. People do not get re-elected voting for things like this so then an assessment may become the only option before Hurricane season really starts June 1,2012. Please read the full article and be fully informed or call L & S Insurance for all your Insurance needs like Home Insurance, Auto, Business and Commercial, Flood and even Life Insurance as well. Please enjoy the article below;

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/12/06/226442.htm

Will it shrink or will it grow now!!!!!  Not a bad song, but Governor Rick Scott wants it to shrink and bigtime. The Citizens committee will be discussing ways to make this happen and the deadline is for 11/30/2011 so the Board of Ctizens can move on the recomendations of the committee. The Gvernor wants the plan in full motion before hurricane season starts in June 2012. The options are raise rates much more, reduce coverage’s, but do not reduce the price,raise all of the coverage’s on the building to increase premiums, continue to do new Mitigation inspections to remove doscounts from policy holder’s and of course the Florida surcharge which could be up to 45% of the preium they are paying.All of these are likely to happen in many parts of florida especially Fort lauderdale and S. Florida.  For all of you in Citizens, try to go now while you can as if that surcharge hit’s then it will follow you to a new carrier and that will be complicated at best. Please read the story by Julie Patel of the Fort Luderdale Sun Sentinal and please call L & S Insurance to try and get you out of Citizens now, why wait. We do all  types of Insurance including, Home, Auto, boat, flood, Business and Commercial and even life Insurance coverage.

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/housekeys/blog/2011/11/citizens_insurance_to_discuss.html

3.2 billion is just the initial Shortfall, how about if a hurricane hits. If you have seen my prior posts about this topic, I have talked about The Citizens Surcharge and this is where and why it may come still very soon. Many Legislators in Tall. including Governor Rick Scott, want to reduce this risk. If the risk is not reduced somehow, the rates will have to increase significantly more than it has and the people of Florida are struggling to afford what is happening already. Consumers in Fort Laud and all over Florida will feel this rate hike terribly if another solution is not found soon. Please read the full article as we wind down hurricane season w/ a  cool blast from the North this weekend. Please remember to call L & S INsurance for all of your needs in Fort lauderdale and all over Florida for Home, auto, Flood, business and Commercial coverage and life Insurance as well;

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/10/20/220845.htm

In this article by Julie Patel of the Sun Sentinal  if your insurance company has been liquidated which 8 have since 2006 then claims will be slower in coming. There is more red tape to deal with and the money has to come from somewhere and the FIGA fund is not liquid itself!! Hurrricane season does not make this any easier either. There are still lot’s of unresolved claims in Fort lauderdale and all of Florida  because new adjustors get assigned and they are looking out for the state and not the consumer. Please stay in touch w/ your agent and GC as well. Only use a public adjustor if truly  needed since they take so much from the claim and the new bill signed by Governor Christ will make many of those adjustors leave the business as many of them are quite unethicle. Another carrier Home Wise Insurance has lost the A rating and I expect them to go under next year. We will contact our clients as best as we can to start to offer new policies to them now, but many will have to wait till the State makes i’s move in the spring of 2012. Please call L & S Insurance for all of your Home, Auto, Flood, business and commercial and Life Insurance as well and please enjoy the article below;

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-insurance-claims-delays-figa-20110914,0,676166.story

Here is a list of all of the Home insurance rate hike requests from all of the carriers that have requested them since June. Also Citizens Insurance will be going up 25%. Knowing that the increases affect S. Florida and Fort Lauderdale at much higher percentges, we will get a much higher  %age  than is shown here. People North of Lake Okeechobee except for Tampa will recieve smaller increases and Tampa should get the average’s. All this while we are in Hurricane season and no storms  for Florida yet(Thank God)!! Please call us at L & S Insurance for all of your Fort lauderdale, S. Florida and  of Florida rates for Home, Auto, Flood, Business and Commerical coverage and Life Insurance as well. Please enjoy the article from Julie Patel of the Sun Sentinal.

 

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/housekeys/blog/2011/08/two_dozen_home_insurance_rate.html

It looks like Hurricane Irene will be the reason(s) the Insurance companies will use to raise rates again. Just the threat of a major cat 3-4 hurricane is proving that there is not enough money to  pay the bill if one hits the US again and we will all have to pay more.This is not fair to Floridians and especially S. Florida and Fort lauderdale as well. We have already paid the highest rates in the country for Home Insurance and it is keeping people away from Florida as the costs are so high compared to anyone else. With our New Governor Rick Scott and all of our Legislators in Tall. being the best friends the Insurance companies in Florida have ever seen and with all of the new Citizens rate hikes, this seems like it will just be inevitable as opposed to being possible.  I hope this does not make people move away from Florida or S. Florida and Fort lauderdale as we need people moving in and new jobs are tough to find as it is already. Please call L & S Insurance for all of your Insurance needs for Home, Car, Auto, Flood, business and Commercial and even Life Insurance as well. Please read the full article below and see what you think;

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2011/08/23/211924.htm#

Please track the storm here at the Home Insurance Guru site! We may get lucky here in S. Florida and Fort Lauderdale as this may pass to our East and affect the bahamas and possibly Northern Florida and perhaps Jacksonville. Please call us for insurance binder’s(Home and Auto as well) by Tuesday or expect us to be shut down this week for new business.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at4.shtml?5-daynl#contents

They want to be independent, but they also want the big company name and now they want both! Allstate agents( Including all subsidiaries like Castle Key) want everything and  let’s see how far they go. I am an independent  agent and  L & S is my agency. I do not have the big company affiliation, my marketing expenses are mine and my decision only. No company advertises to call L & S Insurance in Fort lauderdale for a quote, I do all of that w/ my marketing efforts. Local Allstate agents do not have to do that as it is part of the Franchise fee they pay so why should they have both, I guess I would love both, but I have the hand I dealt my self and I  am pleased where we have come to this point. All the best to them, but I think they will soon realize that w/ Union dues and Union Strikes when the Union is not happy it  could hurt them as well.  Please be mindful of hurricane season now as we are in the peak  season and the storm activity will pick up. Please call L & S for all of your independent  Home, Auto, Flood, Business, Commercial and even Life Insurance.Please enjoy the article below;

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2011/08/18/211529.htm

9/15/2011  is the date and it will be in Tampa at the Convention Center and not in Tall. this time. Since Tampa and it’s 3  counties(Hillsboro, Pasco and Pinellas) in the area are all very much affected this is a good place to have the meetings. Senator Mike Fasano is very outspoken that this increase cannnot be handled by the consumer’s, but the fact that claims for sinkhole are 10 times what is coming in does not help the situation. All of this is occuring during hurricane season when Home Insurance is the most dificult to shop for and of couse the Citizens Rate hike suggested on top of all of this is now a 25% state wide average increase(No one is talking about this change????). The 25% is what will affect Fort lauderdale  and S. Florida the most as that could mean as much as 40% or more on the 1/1/2012  renewals.Several groups will be holding public protests and the more that show up, the better the chance of having this huge increase spread out over several years instead of all at once. Please call us at  L & S Insurance for all of your Home, Auto, Business and Commercial coverage’s as well as Flood and Life Insurance. PLease read the article and ask other’s to visit my Blog page for more info and quotes;

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/08/16/211259.htm#

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