March 21, 2025, WFSU-FM, Tallahassee – Lisa Miller is a former Florida deputy insurance commissioner who now advocates for the industry. She says she has some questions about the numbers contained in that report. “One of the data points in this report talks about $14 billion going to investors,” said Miller. “And to that, I say this: We have about 8 million homeowners insurance policies in our state and only about 40 to 50 companies write those policies. If that kind of outflow of dollars, billions of dollars, as all the headlines have said, is true, then why don’t we have hundreds of companies in this marketplace, which we don’t?” (Story location, including audio version: https://lisamillerassociates.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/InsuranceFlap-WFSU-FM-03-21-25.mp3)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – For many years, actually decades, property insurance has been a huge issue in Florida. Although Chuck Nyce, Professor of Risk Management at the Florida State University College of Business, says things got really dicey just a few years ago in 2022
“Yes, we had a real crisis in property insurance,” said Nyce.
He says there were a bunch of reasons: the increasing severity of storms, more and more coastal development, and policyholders suing companies over denied claims.
So that year, Florida lawmakers passed some legislation to help the industry catch its breath. But at the same time, the State Office of Insurance Regulation, OIR, hired a Connecticut firm to do a financial overview of the Florida insurance industry. That draft report finally came to light through an investigation by the Tampa Bay Times, as this year’s session began. It seems to show while Florida based insurance companies claimed to teeter on the brink of insolvency in 2022, they were shipping billions of dollars to out of state affiliates and shareholders.
That certainly got the attention of Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez. Here’s what he said on the first day of session.
“I have asked the insurance and banking subcommittee to conduct hearings, and they will have access to the full range of tools, including issuing subpoenas, putting witnesses under oath, and hiring outside experts,” said Perez.
Lisa Miller is a former Florida deputy insurance commissioner who now advocates for the industry. She says she has some questions about the numbers contained in that report.
“One of the data points in this report talks about $14 billion going to investors,” said Miller. “And to that, I say this: We have about 8 million homeowners insurance policies in our state and only about 40 to 50 companies write those policies. If that kind of outflow of dollars, billions of dollars, as all the headlines have said, is true, then why don’t we have hundreds of companies in this marketplace, which we don’t?”
The report also alleged the transfer of lots of money from local insurers to something called Managing General Agents, or MGAs. FSU’s Chuck Nyce says there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that.
“Where the ownership can form an insurance company and they can form a managing general agent on the side. What they can do is the insurance company hires the managing general agent to perform a variety of functions for them. This is a well-established kind of structure in the industry. Many companies use MGAs,” said Nyce.
The problem, he says, is when companies take advantage of that arrangement to make it seem like the local company is in much worse financial shape than it really is. But the industry’s Lisa Miller also notes the draft report’s numbers are nearly three years old, and that much has changed in the Florida insurance market since then, especially since the legislature changed the laws.
“For us to know our actual cost to run our household. It can change every week based on the price of milk. So we’re hoping that we can work with the commissioner on providing what costs are, what expenses are, based on the market conditions,” said Miller.
Beyond that. FSU insurance expert Chuck Nyce believes there are some tweaks that need to be made when it comes to industry oversight, without scrapping current law.
“I would like to see market stabilization. I don’t like to see the legislation changing every year. You can’t keep changing the rules. It’s one of the reasons why some of the larger companies have shied away from Florida,” said Nyce.
Nice says that matters, since one thing nearly everyone agrees on is that more private insurance companies in Florida means a healthier, more affordable insurance market for everyone.
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