Florida’s Yaworsky affirms strengthening property market as Progressive commits

As Florida’s property insurance market improves on the back of reforms, Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky has revealed that Progressive is committed to investing in the state, just days after Hurricane Debby’s landfall in the Big Bend area.

The news follows announcements by State Farm and the most recent approval of the ninth new property insurer, Trident Reciprocal Exchange, since the state’s 2023 landmark reforms.

Additionally, national carriers have continued to expand their business in Florida’s market despite reducing company operations elsewhere.

Florida’s strengthening market is reinforced in recent rate filings, increased participation in the Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (Citizens) Depopulation Programme, and also reduced reinsurance costs.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has disclosed the 180-day average request for homeowners’ rates as of August 1st, 2024, is 1.2%. Reportedly, 12 companies have filed a rate decrease to take effect in 2024 and 24 companies have filed a zero percent increase, covering 1.8 million policies in Florida. The current 30-day average rate request for homeowners’ rates is 0.5% compared to 7.6% last year.

As of Q1 2024, there are approximately 7.43 million residential insurance policies in force in Florida, with 83% of these policies underwritten by admitted property insurers.

OIR is seeing greater participation and interest in the Citizens Depopulation program, as it has approved insurers to assume 768,692 policies from Citizens in 2024, an 858% increase since 2022. To date, 132,445 policies have been removed from Citizens as exposure has been reduced by $64 billion.

Preliminary results from the OIR’s 2024 Annual Reinsurance Data Call assessing insurers’ financial viability in covering catastrophic losses to their catastrophic reinsurance programmes, has disclosed that the risk-adjusted change in reinsurance cost decreased on average -1.7% from 2023, notably the first decrease in years.

Yaworsky concluded: “Today’s announcements are a further indication of the continued strengthening of Florida’s property insurance market. OIR will continue to work with Florida-based and national carriers, like Progressive, to recruit and retain business so that all Floridians may benefit from a strong market.”

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