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January 4, 2013

Florida Home Insurance rates still on the rise and Wind mitigation Inspections are part of it.

Posted by homeinsuranceguru under Auto Insurance, Citizens Insurance, FEMA, Flood Insurance, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Governor, Governor Rick Scott, Home Owners Insurance, Legislators, OIR, Rick Scott GOP, Tallahassee | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Governor Rick Scott and the OIR are very friendly with the Insurance carriers in Florida. This is because they want  Florida Home Insurance rates to rise and Citizens to be depopulated and this is how they think it can be done. This Congressional session in Tallahassee our Legislators will soon vote on a Citizens Insurance  bill. This bill will allow Citizens to make the rates actuarily sound which they now feel will be a 17% rate hike instead of the 8-10 percent they have been taking. The real problem with this has been the re inspections and removal of  discounts they used to have. Because of this, increases are 50% in many cases especially here in Fort Lauderdale and most of South Florida. Rates are as hign now as they were  just after Hurricane Wilma and all of this in a bad economy which needs the Real Estate market improving, but Insurance costs are hurting it badly. Insurance costs are most of the time, higher than property taxes and in many cases like mine much worse. I pay 4K in  property taxes, but I will pay about 7K for the Home Insurance on my house this year. This is all because I do not have enough nails for a wrap discount and part of my roof is flat. In any event this article is a good one so please read it below. Please call us at L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for quotes on Home, Auto, Flood, Business & Commercial and Life Insurance as well.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2013/01/03/275867.htm

 

December 8, 2012

State regulators(OIR) are reviewing Citizens Insurance ability to pay claims for State Representative Frank Artilles.

Posted by homeinsuranceguru under Auto Insurance, Citizens Insurance, FEMA, Flood Insurance, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Home Owners Insurance, Legislators, OIR | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
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If Citizens is going to depopulate or raise rates significantly, they must be fiscally reviewed to truly determine what condition it is in to pay claims now and if and when depopulation occurs. We already know that Citizens has 6 Billion in reserves and some bond issues for perhaps 3-6 billion more, but who knows. Hurricane Sandy will cost 25-30 billion in The NY, NJ and New England area so obviouly we are a little short. It does not take  Rocket science to figure this one out, but The Sate Representative Frank Artilles  wants it so now it must be done. Talk about sound bites to get your name in the paper. I will continue to bring this info to all that come visit the Home Insurance Guru in Fort Lauderdale, but we service all of Florida. Please read the full story below and call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for all of your quotes on Home, Auto, Flood, Business & Commercial and Life Insurance as well.

 

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2012/12/07/273164.htm

 

September 28, 2012

State Farm Increases approved for Fort lauderdale and all of Florida.

Posted by homeinsuranceguru under Auto Insurance, Citizens Insurance, FEMA, Flood Insurance, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Home Owners Insurance, OIR, State Farm updates | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
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State Farm had requested 14.9% increase  but was only approved at 6.4%. That  is not bad for the consumer except the damage was done by State Farm over the last 2 years with 4 additional increases and discounts being removed!  The Increase will begin 2/1/2012 so now we will see more Increases being approved  for other carriers  as well by the (OIR) Office of Insurance Regulation.Citizens Insurance will be at about 10%.Also, always remember that whatever the increase is, the rates in Fort lauderdale and All  of South Florida will always be about double that amount and other parts of North Florida will be the same or possibly lower.  Please read the full article below and call  L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for all of your quotes for home, Auto, Flood, Business & Commercial and Life Insurance quotes as well.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2012/09/28/264749.htm

 

July 27, 2012

Citizens Home Insurance depopulations are back and big time.

Posted by homeinsuranceguru under Auto Insurance, Citizens Insurance, FEMA, Flood Insurance, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Governor, Governor Rick Scott, Home Owners Insurance, Julie Patel, OIR, Rick Scott GOP, Sun Sentinal | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Here we go again, in another attempt by Governor Rick Scott to try and reduce Citizens at a faster pace. In a good article by JuliePatel of the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinal  which explains all of the huge benfits new Florida based Insurance carriers will receive some huge benfits including claim help and even guarateeing the consumer for that companies rate hikes. Yes, the OIR, The Governor and people at the head of Citizens want to sell the policies to carriers, give them  perks and then guarantee rates to the consumer  at the expense of Citizens and all of it’s reserves.Now any  carrier could take a 40% rate hike, the consumer would only pay 10% on the increase and Citizens would cover the rest???? What would stop every carrier from imposing huge rate hikes and taking advantage of a system beaten for many years???  In any event, the options are many and discussions will continue for several weeks or more. Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for all quotes on Home, Auto, Flood, Business & Commercial, and life Insurance quotes as well. This article was sent to us by our friends at First State Insurance.

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/housekeys/blog/2012/07/proposals_to_transfer_citizens.html

 

February 17, 2012

Citizens Insurance Inspections in Fort Lauderdale and all of Florida.

Posted by homeinsuranceguru under Auto Insurance, Citizens Insurance, Flood Insurance, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Governor, Governor Rick Scott, Home Owners Insurance, Insurance commissioner, Julie Patel, OIR, Rick Scott GOP, Sun Sentinal | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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I have talked about this for quite some time and now a  lawsuit is looking to become a class action suit. I think this is just for the Lawyers because any Insurance company can inspect a home any time they want as long as they call in advance and set it up. I know the Inspection companies work for  Citizens Insurance and they are on the lazy side when it comes to doing the corrct job, but the real issue is with the departmant that  keeps changing the Mitigation Inspection forms we all use. These forms are always said to be good for 5 years, but they are changed every 2 years and most recently again  on 2/1/2012.The forms are drafted at the Office of Insurance Regulation(OIR) or w/ the Insurance commissioner’s office and the Insurance companies simply start to require the new form that was created. They are within their rights to do so and anyone would do it if they could make more money in business. Citizens cannot become the Insurer of last resort again as Governor Rick Scott wants, if the rates are the lowest in the Industry. Every carrier is now doing their own inspections of one type or another and they are following the laws for our State. The lawsuit should be against the State for totally screwing up the entire Insurance industry because they do not know how to fix it.Oh I forgot, you cannot sue them as they are above the Law, why is that. Please read the full article by Paul Owers & Julie Patel of the Fort lauderdale Sun Sentinal.Please call L & S Insurance(888-244-7400) for all of your Home, Auto, Business & Commercial, Flood, and even Life Insurance.

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/housekeys/blog/2012/02/suit_citizens_insurance_took_a_1.html

 

August 9, 2011

Florida Legislators weigh next Citizens Rate Hikes!

Posted by homeinsuranceguru under Auto Insurance, CFO, Citizens Insurance, Flood Insurance, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Governor, Governor Rick Scott, Home Owners Insurance, Legislators, OIR, Rick Scott GOP, Senator Fasano, Sink Holes, Sinkhole issues, Tallahassee | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
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We have the SinkHole issue going on w/ the 429%average rate hike which is huge for the Tampa area, but will not affect Fort lauderdale and S. Florida as much.Senator M. Fasano is having his rally today even though he has no real say in the matter, but he seems to want to be in the news. Senator Fasano is talking to Governor Rick Scott, Our CFO and the OIR to try to get the point across that our Florida economy cannot handle the  huge rate hike all at one time and it should be phased in! Now of course comes the  normal Citizens  rate increase which should be 25%, but State Law currently only allows a max 10% and this must also be deadly with as Homeowners struggle w/ all the new Insurance rate hikes and lack of Jobs in our Florida Economy. Please call L & S Insurance for all of your Insurance quotes including Auto, Commercial and business, Flood and Life Insurance as well.Please enjoy the article below from the Florida Insurance Journal;

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/08/08/209802.htm

 

July 22, 2011

All State subsidiary Castle Key rate hike is final.

Posted by homeinsuranceguru under Allstate Insurance, Auto Insurance, Castle key Insurance, Flood Insurance, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Governor, Governor Rick Scott, Home Owners Insurance, Legislators, Mitigation Inspections, OIR, Rick Scott GOP, State Farm updates, Tallahassee | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |
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The  OIR has backed   All State Insurance saying  it was necessary and they were happy that All State still remains a viable carrier in Florida. The increase for those policy holder’s will be quite substantial in Fort laud, S. Florida and all of Florida, but the worst will be in S. Florida as the increases could truly mean 50% or more. This will be no differant then any other carrier and State Farm has already done this, but worse. We have seen some clients come from State Farm w/ increases that are nearly 300% form the prior year. What makes this worse is that most carriers are also re-inspecting homes for Wind mitigation Inspections and people are loosing doscounts and when that get’s compounded on top of an increase it feels even worse, consumer’s are very upset and I do not blame them. Governor Rick Scott and the Florida legislative body all seem to agreee this is what must be done and it is happening. New people buying Homes should be made aware of the increased cost since many are still trying to squeeze people in and that is a problem many times.Please remember to call L & S Insurance for all of your Home, Auto, Flood business and commercial Coverage’s as well as Lfe Insurance for Fort Lauderdale and all of Florida.

thx,

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/07/22/207651.htm

 

June 17, 2011

Citizens Insurance is not the place to be if a Hurricane hits!

Posted by homeinsuranceguru under CFO, Citizens Insurance, Flood Insurance, Florida, Governor, Governor Rick Scott, Home Owners Insurance, Hurricane Updates, Insurance commissioner, Julie Patel, OIR, Rick Scott GOP, State Farm updates, Sun Sentinal, Tallahassee | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
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Everyone likes to search the Home  Insurance quotes  based on price and they do not seem to care about coverage’s.Agents who only sell Citizens w/ no other carriers never tell people the true story either and State Farm agents are very guilty of this. Most people are not told about the ability of Citizens Insurance to charge 15% from each of the 3  Citizens Carriers at any time for any financial reason. If a Hurricane comes, not only will you have your 2% deductable to worry about and getting a differant carrier will be nearly impossible as well. You also have to deal w/ a surcharge that could be 3 times what the article here is talking about.Once this surcharge hits you, you can never walk away form it like before because the new Property Insurance Bill just signed by Governor Rick Scott insurs that Citizens Insurance collects it’s fees. This power was given to them by the Legislators in Tall. as well as the OIR and the Insurance commissioner. Most of the people on the board of Citizens are not even experienced in the industry so they have no real working knowledge as to why things  happen. Please read the full article by Julie Patel of the Sun Sentinal and please call L & S Insurance for all of your Home, Auto, Flood, Commercial and Life Insurance busienss.

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/housekeys/blog/2011/06/citizens_policyholders_could_e_1.html

 

June 11, 2011

Florida Home Insurance Merger of 2 carriers complete!

Posted by homeinsuranceguru under Auto Insurance, CFO, First Home Insurance, Florida, Home Owners Insurance, Homewise Insurance, Hurricane Updates, Insurance commissioner, Legislators, OIR, Reinsurance, Tallahassee | Tags: , , , , , , , , , |
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HomeWise Insurance and First Home Insurance are now completely merged and they are stabile w/ the OIR, CFO’s office, The Insurance commissioner,and all Legislators in Tallahassee as they have maintained the A  rating w/ Demotech and are now a stronger carrier. The Financial reserves are now at 25 million which is nearly double the State requirement and should keep them Healthy moving forward.Since the Re-Insurance package is also now complete the company is set and safe under the Homewise name for Hurricane season which is already under way. Since L & S Insurance is ana agent  of Homewise we are still writing policies w/ them and many other carriers so please call us for you Home Insurance, Auto Insurance, Flood Insurance and commercial business as well. Please enjot the complete article below;

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/06/08/201813.htm

 

April 29, 2011

Another Home Insurer leaving Florida(Argus Insurance)!

Posted by homeinsuranceguru under Argus Insurance, Auto Insurance, Citizens Insurance, Florida, Home Owners Insurance, Hurricane Updates, Julie Patel, OIR, Sun Sentinal, United Auto Insurance | Tags: , , , , , , , |
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The only good news here is that the policies will continue until the anniversary and then non renew! This Insurer was put under watch by the Florida OIR  nearly 2  years ago, but has maintained itself as best it can. Over 4K policies were dropped over the last 12  months to try and help, but the financials they have are not good enough to stay in  business.Most of these people will have to go to Citizens Insurance which is where they came from, but we hope for abetter scenario if the hurricane season is not so bad. Argus is owned by United Auto and this should not affect that carrier, but we will see soon enough. Please call L & S Insurance for help w/ this matter and we will move all of our remaining clients at the non renewal date which should not occur for L & S till after Hurricane season which is coming real soon. Please read the full article by Julie Patel of the Sun Sentinal;

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/housekeys/blog/2011/04/another_florida_home_insurer_c.html

 

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