Plus, pushback on wind mitigation regulation
An early end to a hurricane assessment fee on Florida property insurance policies, the “big ask” that Florida regulators are making to insurance companies, a new crackdown on unlicensed warranty companies in the Sunshine State, plus Citizens Property Insurance continues its roll into 2026 on successful depopulation to the private market. It’s all in this week’s Property Insurance News.
FIGA Fee: The Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA) announced on Friday that it’s ending its 1% emergency assessment on all homeowners and business property insurance policies two years early. The FIGA Board, citing a quiet 2025 hurricane season and no property insurance company insolvencies since 2023, will be able to pay off early the $424 million of outstanding bond debt on the 2023A assessment that was first levied in October 2023. The assessment was needed to help pay unearned premium refunds associated with the ten carrier insolvencies that occurred from 2019-2023. FIGA said ending the assessment early on October 1 of this year will save policyholders up to $650 million.
OIR Wind Mitigation Program: The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) held another workshop last Tuesday on its next step in implementing the legislatively-mandated reevaluation of wind mitigation discount credits on Florida property insurance policies. The workshop was well-attended by insurance companies and associations, who commented on the “significant undertaking” that OIR’s newest form represents, predicted an “extraordinary cost” on insurance carriers, and a “big ask” of the industry. There were also helpful questions and answers on how this is supposed to work. By the end of the 90-minute session, OIR representatives admitted the Rule itself, as well as the inspection Form 1802, may need more work. The program is scheduled to go into effect on April 1, but the industry requested OIR delay implementation for several months to allow carriers to develop systems for inputting the thousands of forms required. You can read more in our full LMA Report.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky
Warranty Crackdown: Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky has ordered a New Jersey-based extended auto warranty company to cease doing business in Florida, for lacking a license or approval to do business in the state. To allow minimum disruption to consumers though, Yaworsky ordered American Dream Auto Protect to continue to administer in-force auto warranties in compliance with Florida law, allow consumers to cancel the warranty coverage and obtain a refund, and pay claims in accordance with Florida law. OIR is demanding American Dream notify consumers by sending them a copy of the consent order and publish the consent order on American Dream’s website. OIR has a new webpage highlighting unauthorized entities to warn consumers.
Citizens Depopulation: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation removed another 55,081 personal lines policies in the just-completed February takeout by private market insurance companies. That follows record depopulation of its policies in both 2024 and 2025. As of February 13, Citizens had 391,768 policies in force, down from 1.26 million in September 2024. OIR has approved another 314,000 personal lines policies for the April takeout that follows a March commercial lines takeout of 1,652 policies already in progress. Citizens predicts its policy count by the end of 2026 could be as low as 291,000. Its Market Accountability Advisory Committee reported last week that only 1.9% of the business that’s been depopulated since 2023 has come back as new business – a key measure of the program’s success.
Citizens newly rolled-out policy Clearinghouse program, another way it moves policies to the private market, is producing “very, very good news” results, per VP Carl Rockman: 34% of potential new business in 2025 was turned away for being ineligible before it could be formally submitted; and requests from agents have been cut in half since last April. The renewal portion of the Clearinghouse in its first two months of operation is showing promising results, too. Changes created by the new Clearinghouse have resulted in the number of agencies writing Citizens’ policies decreasing (by 126), and the number of insurance agents and licensed customer representatives participating increasing (by 2,839). You can read more in our full LMA Report.
LMA Newsletter of 2-23-26
