The overall health of Florida’s property insurance market is on an upward trend, as is the financial position of the state’s “insurer of last resort.”
Citizens Property Insurance Corp. President, CEO and Executive Director Tim Cerio reported to the Citizens board of governors June 25 that the company continues to benefit from improving market conditions brought on by legislative reforms.
“It is simply irrefutable that reforms championed by the Governor and passed by the Legislature have had a tremendous impact on improving this market,” Cerio said in a media release. “The data bears this out.”
Citizens was created in 2002 from the merger of two entities to provide windstorm coverage and general property insurance for homeowners who could not obtain insurance elsewhere.
It was established by the Florida Legislature as a not-for-profit insurer of last resort.
Unlike private insurance carriers, if Citizens is in a position to have to pay out more claims than it has assets, an emergency assessment would be charged to all Florida policyholders to cover the shortfall.
Citizens moved its headquarters from Tallahassee to Jacksonville in 2015, occupying more than 200,000 square feet of space Downtown at 301 W. Bay St.
With its 10-year lease expiring the company announced in March that it is moving to the former Florida Coastal School of Law building at 8787 Baypine Road in South Jacksonville.
Cerio said new private insurance companies are entering the Florida market, existing insurers are expanding and rates are stabilizing.
As a result, Citizens is returning to its role as Florida’s state-owned insurance company that will write a policy when no other carrier will.
In addition, Citizens successfully completed its 2025 risk transfer program by purchasing enough reinsurance protection to cover a 1-in-100-year storm without the risk of assessments on non-Citizens policyholders.