Everest can stand by Florida in 2024 in current market conditions

Everest's reinsurance wing is ready to stand by Florida at the pending June 1 renewals if market conditions remain as strong as seen of late, Everest Re’s chief for reinsurance, Jim Williamson, has claimed. 

“As long as our expectations for risk-adjusted returns are met, which would mean at least as good or improved from last year, meaning excellent, we will continue to provide capacity,” Williamson told his company’s fourth quarter earnings call with equity market analysts. 

“If that isn’t the case, we would do less; and if conditions get even better, we might do a bit more,” Williamson said, “but I don’t expect a major change at the upcoming June 1 renewal.”

Everest Re suspects that recent legislative reforms to the Florida market, most notably changes governing litigation, are working as planned, but doesn't yet have the hard data that might redirect an underwriting stance. 

Early signals and talks with partners “suggest that those reforms are doing what they were intended to do,” Williamson said. But the Everest plan remains to “wait for the results of those reforms to show up in our data before determining what that means for our underwriting situation.”

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