Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty gave the go-ahead to several insurance companies to remove policies from Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
Some of the companies already began taking out policies earlier this year; others began in June with this latest approval. Florida law allows Citizens' policyholders to refuse the offer and stay in Citizens. All of the take-out companies have agreed to offer the same or better coverage than the policyholder had with Citizens, and at the same or lower price.
"Every company removing these policyholders into the private market has met Florida's rigorous licensing standards, and most of the newer companies were licensed with double or triple the statutorily required start-up capital of $5 million," said Commissioner McCarty. "We monitor the removal process very carefully to ensure policyholder protection."
To date, the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has approved plans to remove as many as 500,000 policies in 2008 from the state-created insurance company and place them in the private market.
The most recently approved companies are:
Argus Fire & Casualty Insurance Co.: up to 18,000 policies total; 12,360 removed to date.
Avatar Property and Casualty Insurance Co.: up to 10,000 policies total in June.
Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Co.: up to 30,000 policies total; 20,000 removed to date.
Magnolia Insurance Co.: up to 60,000 policies total in June.
Southern Oak Insurance Co.: up to 75,000 policies total; 6,678 removed to date.
American Integrity Insurance Co. of Florida, which had been part of the above-named group, posted an "Open Letter to customers affected by the June Take Out Notification" on its website. The notice read: "You recently received a letter from the OIR indicating that there has been a change to American Integrity Insurance Company of Florida's acquisition of your Citizen's policy this month. American Integrity, working in conjunction with the OIR, mutually agreed to forgo the June 2008 takeout so that we would be in a position to consider takeout approval later this year. We apologize for any confusion this has caused."
