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The regulator said the insurance market has been buffeted by multiple hurricanes in the last several storm seasons, as well as by other market challenges like assignment of benefits (AOB) abuse, that “have led to high loss reserve development, increased litigation, and increased cost of catastrophe reinsurance.”
While it is too early to know the full impact of the new AOB law, OIR said it has issued a data call to begin tracking its effect. Starting in 2022, OIR will institute a statutorily mandated annual data call to understand the full impact of legislation on the market.
Additionally, OIR is currently performing an analysis of insurer holding company affiliates. In July, it sent a letter to 60 companies it regulates requesting information of the companies that is “intended to best inform the Office how the underwriting results of your company may be improved,” the letter stated.
When asked why OIR requested this info at this time, the regulator told Insurance Journal the analysis is a targeted examination of insurers to evaluate their MGAs and other affiliates within the holding company system as a “supplement to OIR’s ongoing activities throughout the year.”
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Legislative Fix
The industry says the only way to stem the tide of rising litigation and rates is to enact legislation that addresses the market’s cost drivers. Some ideas that have been floated include shortening the timeframe for filing initial hurricane loss claims from three years to two – as is the case with sinkhole damage – and eliminating the contingency fee multiplier on property lawsuits.
“We think it’s entirely inappropriate to provide a [fee] multiplier to an attorney who represents a homeowner on a typical property claim,” said Michael Carlson, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of Florida.
Carlson said stakeholders are looking at something similar to a law passed in Texas in 2017 to address hailstorm lawsuit abuse. That law limits liability for insurance companies following storm damage by requiring notice before a suit can be filed to allow the insurer to address any outstanding claim issues. Attorney fees may not be awarded if the court finds the insurer was entitled to but not provided with pre-suit notice. It also cuts penalties for insurers sued for offering too little money on storm claims, including wind and hail damage, while making it harder for those suing to collect attorneys’ fees.
Please call Lee from USAsurance & Calle Financial. 954-270-7966, Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance & Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, and Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer. My email is lee@myusassurance.com
After years of warnings that the Florida property insurance market was heading towards an availability crisis, many in the industry say the moment of reckoning has arrived. They blame unchecked claims litigation from non-catastrophe water losses and rising reinsurance rates that have severely strained the financials of Florida insurers.
The situation has gone from bad to worse for Florida domestic insurance carriers this year, which together cover most of the state’s homeowners market.
Nearly 60 carriers suffered a combined $701 million in losses and $351 million in negative income for all of 2019, according to Guy Carpenter. In just the first half of 2020, the companies lost more than a half billion ($501 million) in underwriting losses and $227 million of negative net income. Third quarter results are expected to show further deterioration. Guy Carpenter’s data cited an average net combined ratio for 2019 of 111 percent that climbed to 129 percent in the second quarter of 2020 for these companies.
“If we’re not in a crisis, I don’t know what we’re in,” said Kyle Ulrich, president and CEO of the Florida Association of Insurance Agents. “Those numbers … just simply are not sustainable.”
As a result, carriers have been steadily raising rates this year and this trend isn’t expected to slow down any time soon. Companies are requesting and the Florida regulator is approving substantial rate increases – some over 30% – along with taking steps to limit their exposures and protect their books of business.
The vast majority of Florida insurers have filed multiple rate increases this year for just under the 15% threshold that requires a rate hearing by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Since August, four companies – Capitol Preferred Insurance Co., Southern Fidelity Insurance Co., First Community Insurance Co. and Centauri Specialty Insurance Co. – have participated in rate hearings for rate increase requests ranging from 25% to just below 40%.
Please call Lee from USAsurance & Calle Financial. 954-270-7966, Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance & Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, and Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer. My email is lee@myusassurance.com
We represent over 125 carriers in Florida including Tower Hill & Safeco. This may work for many of you so please let is try. Our office number is 954-606-5660
Florida-based Tower Hill Insurance and national carrier Safeco, two non-affiliated carriers, have formed a marketing partnership in the state of Florida to offer a multi-policy discount to customers. Beginning in November, policyholders will have access to a multi-policy discount when they add a Tower Hill home to an account with a Safeco auto policy – or add a Safeco auto policy to an account with a Tower Hill home policy.
The company said with market disruption commonplace in Florida, “this is an opportunity for both companies to reach more customers through their multi-policy marketing partnership.”
The multi-policy discounts are applied to both the auto and home insurance policies. Tower Hill’s President, Don Matz, and Debra Pooley, Southeast Region Field Executive at Safeco, jointly announced the new partnership to agents recently, saying the marketing partnership is a natural way for each company “to better serve our independent agents and policyholders.”
Tower Hill currently insurers more than 2 million customers.
Both teams worked over the last year to bring the partnership to light, according to the companies.
Safeco Insurance currently offers several programs in Florida – including the RightTrack Mobile program, which provides discounts for safe drivers. After a 90-day driving period, eligible customers receive a premium discount, up to 30%, for the life of the policy.
The new multi-policy discount is applied in addition to the home and auto discounts that Tower Hill and Safeco customers already receive.
Please call Lee from USAsurance & Calle Financial. 954-270-7966, Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance & Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, and Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer. My email is lee@myusassurance.com
Delivering an exceptional customer experience is always a priority for insurance companies. But this is even more critical during this particularly rough, record-setting hurricane season of 2020.
It’s more important now than ever for P&C insurers to effectively communicate with their customers and appropriately respond to the influx of claims while complying with new safety guidelines that come with COVID-19.
This particularly active hurricane season — in the midst of COVID-19 — makes customer-centric, digital-first conversations between insurers and their customers more important than ever. In order to achieve this, insurers need to rapidly accelerate their digital transformation initiatives and provide customers with a great experience even without in-person interactions.
Don’t wait for the storm to communicate
If property and casualty insurers do not already have a customer communications strategy in place well before a major weather event occurs, it is too late. Without proper communication, policyholders can find themselves confused about what kind of damage is protected by their insurer and what the claims process will entail, especially today, given all the changes that have come with COVID-19.
Insurance companies must regularly check in with policyholders in hurricane-prone regions to ensure they have a clear understanding of what their policy covers, what the claims process will entail if they need to file and how they can update their policy if needed, among other things.
While it’s important for insurers to effectively communicate with policyholders around the time of a storm, they shouldn’t wait until these moments to begin an ongoing conversation. Regular communications should start at the very moment a customer adopts a policy from their P&C insurer. With a relationship already established, the customer will have a better understanding of the claims process and feel they’re taken care of before, during, and after a storm passes through their area.
Please call Lee from USAsurance & Calle Financial. 954-270-7966, Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance & Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, and Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer. My email is lee@myusassurance.com
Ah, teenagers; those kids in adult bodies. They used to be cute, knee-bouncing babies, then they suddenly begin to behave and consume like grownups. That includes getting behind the wheel.
It follows that adding a teen driver to the family auto insurance policy can kick up the premium more than 200%, according to a recent article published by Coverage.com, an insurance comparison and policy shopping website. The dispatch includes details and data about the cost of covering a teen driver, various factors that impact that cost including location and gender, and how long it may take for a young driver’s insurance premiums to decrease.
But there is one surprise in the story: Teen drivers don’t actually need to be so expensive to insure. The slideshow above illustrates six ways that Coverage.com says teens and their guardians can save money on auto insurance.
Please call Lee from USAsurance & Calle Financial. 954-270-7966, Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance & Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, and Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer. My email is lee@myusassurance.com
Please call Lee from USAsurance & Calle Financial. 954-270-7966, Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance & Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, and Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer. My email is lee@myusassurance.com
For consumers, reading through insurance policies with a fine-tooth comb probably isn’t high on the priority list. But insureds may find themselves pleasantly surprised by some of the particular details their policies cover.
Considering everything from auto theft to vehicle damage, internally and externally, more incidents and assets are covered than one might expect.
In an informative piece for Forbes, author Christopher Elliot breaks down seven different surprising risks that auto insurance policies cover.
In the slideshow above, discover some of the more particular risks car insurance can cover, and learn what types of policy inclusions are required to meet those coverage needs.
Please call Lee from USAsurance & Calle Financial. 954-270-7966, Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance & Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, and Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer. My email is lee@myusassurance.com
Many firms have noted double-digit increases in the number of life insurance policies they’ve sold during the Covid-19 pandemic relative to last year.
The increase is largely due to a fear of death and greater awareness of financial risks associated with mortality, experts said.
Insurance sales have been dwindling for years. In 2020, just over half of American adults reported having a life insurance policy, down from 63% a decade earlier.
Consumers, especially younger adults, have been buying insurance in elevated numbers since the spring, when thousands of Americans began getting ill and dying from Covid-19.
That result is logical, experts said, given the core use of life insurance: as a financial backstop in the event of death.
Please call Lee from USAsurance & Calle Financial. 954-270-7966, Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance & Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, and Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer. My email is lee@myusassurance.com
Loss estimates are in for Hurricane Delta, the 10th named storm to hit the U.S. this season. With Delta’s arrival on southern shores, the 2020 hurricane season breaks a 104-year-old record for the most named storms in a season.
Hurricane Delta made landfall in Louisiana on October 9 as a Category 2 storm, and the second hurricane in six weeks to hit the southwestern coast of Louisiana. Affected areas in Louisiana and Texas experienced flooding rains, significant storm surge, road closures and strong winds as with Delta reached a maximum sustained surface wind speed of 100 miles per hour.
The storm flooded communities and blew tarps off homes and businesses in affected regions that include areas damaged by Hurricane Laura just six weeks prior.
On Wednesday (Oct. 14), catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide published its insured loss estimate and analysis for Hurricane Delta. AIR estimates that industry insured losses to onshore property resulting from Hurricane Delta’s winds and storm surge will range between $1-3 billion.
New analysis from CoreLogic also estimates insured losses for Hurricane Delta, breaking down costs by category. In its report, CoreLogic estimates insured wind losses for residential and commercial properties in Louisiana and Texas will fall between $0.5–0.9 billion. Insured storm surge losses are estimated to be an additional $0.2–0.3 billion, and damage to offshore structures ranges from $0.8–1.5 billion.
The Home Insurance Guru 