The Home Insurance Guru

Both State Farm of Florida and Universal P & C  both received poor ratings from Weiss ratings. The Insurance carriers are weak although reserves meet all the state of Florida requirements, but the parent companies of each are in good financial condition. State laws set up by our Legislators in Tall. have ok’d the MGA’s to be exclusive from review which makes no sense at all, but neither do the Legislators.Weiss’s ratings are based on Reserves and although Universal has 110 Million in reserves, this is only because of the huge rate increases they have taken over the last 2 years, the most recent being March 2011. State Farm’s newest increase kicks in July and it is a doosy so the   reserve number’s will not be known for a while. At our agency L & S Insurance  we have received so many calls from State Farm clients very upset w/ the new rates from July and beyond and I tend to agree. Now we are in Hurricane season and there is little many can do as the capacity issues come from reinsurer’s and the markets always tighten up during Hurricane season and lighten up near the end if all looks better at that time.At least they are not like Argus Insurance and being shut down in 45 days w/ no advance warning.Most of them if not all wil have to go into Citizens Insurance which wants to reduce their exposure as well. This was  all due to re-insurance issues that were all well known by the OIR, but never acted upon till last minute putting all of our clients at risk. Please read the full article below  by Julie Patel of the Sun Sentinal and please contact L & S Insurance for your Home, Auto, Flood, business and Life Insurance quotes;

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