The Home Insurance Guru

Allstate, State Farm and Progressive are leading the way to protect the Insurance carriers in Florida and to try and spur growth of new carriers entering   Florida’s marketplace so they say!  This is part of the deregulation issues that are starting to affect us and we hope this will indeed bring new cariers w/ better pricing, but I have my doubts. Since these carriers take up 45% of the auto market in Florida and 25% of the Home Insurance market, I am quite sure this will be to protect their best interest in  whatever matter that may be. We will see what happens as this progresses, but we all know in Tall. when lobby groups form it is to protect their own interests and not necessarily the public’s! Please read the article below and remember to contact us at L & S Insurance for all your Insurance needs and quotes. Please use  the Blog page to send us your info;

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/01/25/181945.htm

Not even a vote yesterday(1/25/11) on a whole day of debating, but we all know how this will work out. This will allow the Insurance companies to deny claims for Sinkholes unless the ground movement is a certain amount and will also allow Insurance companies to be deregulated on pricing issues.  This will also be discussed w/ the Citizens Insurance 55% rate increase under way already and what we have here is an Insurance mess and nightmare for all.  What we will see this year and next is extreme rate increases by all carriers before year end and the Insurance companies getting healthier, but what about the Florida consumer who cannot afford the insurance policies already.Remember that the Hurricane season predictions are already out and a  wild season again is expected, but we hope to be spared. Please call L & S Insurance to help w/ your problems her ein Florida and with our 16 carriers we represent we will find the best rate for you and let you know what needs to be done to do it correctly. In Tall. Our legislators and Governor discuss how much we can afford and yu should call your Representative and Senator as they need to hear from all of us. Please enjoy the full article;

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/CD/20110126/CAPITOLNEWS/101260314/Senate-committee-debates-sinkholes-insurance-coverage

Another article by Julie Patel on Home Insurance and all of it’s issues. She is correct w/ her number’s, but other claims like Water, Mold and Sinkhole have been the real killer’s over the last 3  years. The companies are still  struggling to survive even w/ the inflated Hurricane risk premiums because they under estimated the other claims being so bad and bad they really are. Our insurance industry is and has been a mess and a  new regime is trying to do what they think is correct, but this will also fail and many people will not be able to afford the new Insurance rates they will get in 2011 and 2012. Please read the entire article and if you neeed quotes, please contact as at L & S Insurance to help you shop out the best rates available in Florida for Home, Auto, Flood, Life Insurance and bussiness and commercial policies.

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/housekeys/blog/2011/01/report_insurers_calculate_prem.html

Only 46 homes have filed claims w/ Citizens for the drywall claims which occured because of the shortage of normal drywall after the hurricanes Wilma and Katrina. Citizens has also tried to cancel a  few clients w/ the issue including someone from Punta Gorda, but they have rescinded the non renewal saying the damages are not that bad to cancel. These people have enough issues because when the Insurer of last resort wont take on a client then who will. It is bad enough that companies are non renewing people for exposure management, but when they are  cancelled for claim reasons it is very hard to find coverage and now that Citizens will raise rates up to 55% later this year, where will people turn to. Our new Governor Scott  and Legislator’s in Tall.  seem more concearned about the Health of the Insurance carriers and not the financial health of the consumer struggling to save their home and Insurance is just going to get too high. Please call the experts at L & S Insurance to get quotes for up to 15 carriers to find the best rates for home Insurance, Flood and  auto as well. Please read the full article below  from Julie Patel about Cinese drywall claims;

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-citizens-chinese-drywall-20110119,0,4326672.story

The Legislators in Tall. have now realized that from 2006 to 2010  SinkHole claims have quadrupled or more. Of course people who have claims and the homes  are in the ground need help, but all the frivoulous claims submitted by Public Adjustor’s and people just trying to collect are the biggest part of the problem. Our New Governor Rick Scott is looking to reform Insurance comapnies and help them as well by deregulating them on rates. Claims from Sinkholes are now at over 80 million in Florida and the premium received is only 20 million for it. Now you can begin to see the problem and most of this falls on Citizens Insurance as well as others like ASI/Ark Royal. Because of all the claims and  many of them being frivoulous as well, the verbiage in policies will soon change to the 10 foot rule which will help control  the Public adjustors from getting so much money from the Insurance companies which also will cause even higher premiums then we are already seeing. A home will have to have sunk 10 feet to quoalify for a claim to be processed.Please read the whole article on SinkHole issues in Florida  and see if you would want to be Insurance commissioner Kevin McCarty who is already fighting for his job. Please call L & S   Insurance for quotes or fill in your info on the Blog page quote section and thanks,

 http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/01/14/180214.htm

Currently Citizens can only raise rates 10% per year, but that is now likely to change w/ Governor Rick Scott and the new Florida legislative body in Tall. This deficit is too great and needs to be  repaired as well.  Citizens needs to become the Insurer of last resort so  his plan for deregulation will work. I said in a prior blog that 1/11 the meetings will start and start they did. It did not take too long to get this started and it does not look well for those who only write Citizens Insurance like some small independent agencies and State Farm agents who cannot sell any other product by Company policy. Now when the agent says this is the best place for you and the prices jump 55% from where they are let’s see what happens! Please call  L & S Insurance or get a quote on this Blog page. We represent 16 independent carriers and can truly get the best price and product available in the Florida marketplace for Home Insurance as well as Flood, and Auto as well. Please read the full article on Citizens.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-citizens-rates-20110112,0,2325955.story

Please read the article and now what do these poor people do?? 

Please call L & S Insurance or via the Blog page to get quotes for Home Insurance or any type of Insurance needs.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2011/01/11/180011.htm

The final month of non renewing 125K people is coming. people are upset and too many are being put into Citizens Property Insurance which will soon become the Insurer of last resort again. When our Legislators meet in  Tall. later this year things will change and prices are on the rise. Please call  L & S to get the best rates for your Florida Home. The best time to shop for Insurance is now when we are not in Hurricane season and we have nearly 15 carriers to choose from even though rates are up. Please read the full article on State Farm.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20110111/NEWS/101115013

Sinkhole claims have tripled since 2006 till year end 2010 and at a cost to the insurance carriers  of 1.4 BILLION dolars here in Florida. This cost is astronomicle and on the rise. many of these claims are frivolous and need not be filed, but once a claim is filed for sinkHole the Insurance carriers must do testing that can cost nearly 20K. This is necessary when a sinkhole does exist, but Puiblic adjustors are calling every crack in a slab a sinkhole when it is merely in most cases settling of the ground and just needs some maintenance from the Homeowner? Since the claims are now coming from S. Florida and citizens is spending 4 times what they take in the problem has hit the news big time. I am not in favor of paying more for Insurance, but Insuirance carriers should not have to be paying al this money and they should be protected. This sesion in Tallahassee you will see new verbiage on Sinkhole definitions and this ill help protect the carriers from paying claims that are Frivoulous in nature and cost Floridians millions in premiums. Please call L & S for your Insurance quotes or go to the Blog page and do the quote there.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-sinkhole-insurance-laws-20110105,0,2038636.story

All good news and we can help you with it so please call L & S at 954-351-2250 or 1-888-244-7400 x-229 for Stephanie. Please read the article from FAIA that gives some good news;

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/01/05/116164.htm