Florida insurer of last resort adds exposures at accelerating pace

Florida's insurer of last resort Citizens picked up policies and exposures at an accelerating pace again in February, adding 26,146 new policies to expand exposure by 3.6%.

The February take brings the annual increase in total policies to 50.6%, including a 33% increase in coastal properties.

After more than a year of Florida declaring insolvencies and insurers declaring retreats, mark the Citizen in-force policy count at 1.194 million, the highest level since points in Q4 2013.

With the run-u[p fed by wholesale liquidations of failed insurers, Citizens is adding non-coastal properties at over twice the pace of coastal properties where select insurers might pull back. Coastal properties have come down consistently over the past several years as a part of the whole save for a hefty one-off bump immediately ahead of Hurricane Ian.

Citizens continues to take on some rather pricey properties, with total exposure still growing well in excess of the growth in the policy count: Total exposure is up 3.6% in February alone or 83% year on year.

Citizens’ growth has been driven by a Florida market said to run insurers out of business. Southern Fidelity, Avatar P&C, St. Johns Insurance, Weston and FedNat have all gone to receivership in regulator moves. United P&C bid farewell to southern states on its own. Universal P&C recently went from a garden-variety run-off to outright insolvency.

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