"Reckless" rate reduction promises on the part of some Florida regulators have led to possibly disappointed homeowners, an insurers' trade group said today.

On Friday the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation Web site began posting home insurers' rate reductions as they were received.

Reductions were mandated as part of a recent legislative package signed by GOP Gov. Charlie Crist earlier this year that provided property insurers with below cost reinsurance.

William Stander, Tallahassee-based regional manager for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, said it was understandable that there was confusion from consumers regarding rate reduction.

Most of the rate reductions fell far short of the 24 percent projected by some lawmakers when the bill was passed in January and Mr. Stander blamed state officials for possible disappointment among homeowners.

"The state has a responsibility to set realistic expectations for Floridians and to work in a constructive manner to achieve a tangible solution," Mr. Stander said in a statement. "Promises on exact rate reductions were rushed, and in some cases reckless."

Office of Insurance Regulation spokesman Bob Lotane said it was still too early in the process to judge its effectiveness, noting the department has only received the proposed reductions and not yet acted on them.

"When [insurers] filed rate increase requests in the past they proved to be more than we felt actuarially justified, and we think the same could be said of these reductions, which we think may be less than justified," he said.

Among the provisions included was an expansion of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund that by some estimates was to have reduced reinsurance costs from 49 cents for a dollar of coverage to 6 cents for the same coverage.

Florida Insurance Council executive vice president Sam Miller said the main winners from the legislation will be the Citizens Property Insurance Company policyholders who will not face a proposed 75 percent increase as a result of the legislation.

"The rest of Floridians will pay insurance surcharges the next time Citizens has a major hit to pay for the lower rates," Mr. Miller said. "However, we are one Florida and Citizens rates were becoming unaffordable." Citizens is the state's insurer of last resort.

Citizens was exempt from a March 15 rate reduction filing deadline and is expected to project rate reductions of 7 percent.

Mr. Miller noted that legislators projected rate reductions of between 5- and 40 percent at the time the reforms were under deliberation. "And that is what is happening," he said.

Mr. Lotane also noted that as more reductions were posted on the Web site it became apparent the range was far wider than at first glance.

Robert P. Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute in New York, said the main beneficiaries of the expanded catastrophe fund would be smaller insurers since they could not achieve the reinsurance discounts for scale the bigger carriers could.

Meanwhile, Gainesville-based Tower Hill Preferred said it would cut rates by 22.4 percent.

The following are other requested rate reductions:

o State Farm Florida Ins. Co.--7 percent

o Allstate Floridian--14.2 percent

o Nationwide of Fla.--4.6 percent

o Liberty Mutual Fire Ins.--8.7 percent

Special Reports /

Fla. Home Insurance Rates Cause Controversy

Related Stories

Recommended For You