Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has approved another round of take-outs from the state's bloated insurer of last resort.

McCarty's Office of Insurance Regulation says American Integrity Insurance Co. has been given the go-ahead to take 40,000 policies from Citizens Property Insurance Corp., and the recently-licensed Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. is green-lighted to remove 60,000 policies.

The latest round of take-outs is scheduled for Dec. 4, says the OIR.

This latest announcement is in addition to a late September approval of 60,000 take-outs and an earlier approval for companies to remove 150,000 Citizens policies next month. The OIR also approved about 6,645 take-outs in October.

McCarty's take-out approvals are not necessarily the amounts of policies that will be removed from Citizens' book of business due to a policyholders right to opt out of a take-out and stay with the state-run insurer.

As of September, about 84,340 policies have been removed through the take-out process, says the OIR. According to OIR records, these policies went to Florida Peninsula Insurance Co., Southern Fidelity P&C, and Southern Oak Insurance Co. The three companies were approved to remove a combined 125,000 policies this year as of September.

Insurers may have stepped up to take policies because doing so could give them the first shot at Citizens' books. McCarty has sent a letter to Citizens urging the it to give priority to insurers that have already been approved to take out policies without financial incentives proposed by Citizens.

Citizens has approved a controversial plan to loan its surplus to insurers willing to assume its policies. The low-interest, 20-year loans are meant as an enticement since insurers must provide the same coverage, at the same rate, as Citizens once the policy is assumed—and it is widely known that, overall, Citizens' policies are underpriced.

Citizens canceled an Oct. 15 Depopulation Committee meeting "to allow additional time for outside advisors to review the proposed surplus note program."

The cancellation followed a letter to Citizens CEO Barry Gilway from Carlos A. Lacasa, chairman of the Board of Directors. Lacasa requested an independent review.

The chairman says he agrees in principle with the proposed surplus note program, but "given the nature of Citizens and the need for heightened transparency, further review is paramount."

"An outside assessment will give the public added confidence that, if we move forward with the [program], we are doing so with all available information and a firm understanding of its potential impact on our policyholders and Florida taxpayers," Lacasa writes.

Citizens is also under fire in Florida after two newspapers reported that Citizens terminated employees working in its Office of Corporate Integrity, which handled complaints of employee fraud or misconduct. The move drew the ire of Gov. Rick Scott, who fired a letter to Lacasa.

Citizens followed with a press release to clarify that it had not eliminated its corporate integrity functions, but realigned them under other business units, including the Office of Internal Audit, the Ethics Officer and the Employee Relations Office.

"We believe these changes strengthen our ability to ensure Citizens employees operate with the highest level of integrity," says Gilway in the statement.

Special Reports /

Florida Approves Take-Out of 100,000 Policies from Last-Resort Insurer in December

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