Florida has added an eighth regional company to write homeowners coverage, a sign of confidence in the marketplace now that the state has insurance-friendly regulations in place.
The Office of Insurance Regulation said Ovation Home Insurance Exchange, based in Boca Raton, is the most recent entry into the Florida market.
Ovation Risk Managers, led by Florida Peninsula Insurance Co. Chief Executive Officer Paul Adkins, is the attorney-in-fact.
Florida’s property insurance marketplace, boosted last year by the entry of six regional insurers, now has added two more companies in 2024.
The OIR earlier approved the application for Manatee Insurance Exchange to sell homeowners multiperil, commercial multiperil, inland marine, liability and other property/casualty lines
In addition to new company entering the market, the OIR approved the acquisition of Florida domestic property/casualty reciprocal insurer, Trusted Resource Underwriters Exchange, to allow the existing company to grow its footprint in the state and expand its underwriting capacity.
As a result of the OIR’s approval of the acquisition, more than $1.25 billion of capital is being invested into Florida’s property marketplace, the OIR said.
“Florida’s insurance market continues to strengthen, showing signs recent legislation is having positive impacts to the property insurance market,” Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky, said in a statement. “OIR remains steadfast in our efforts to stabilize Florida’s insurance market by implementing legislative reforms and recruiting more insurers to the state.”
Legislative efforts included eliminating the one-way attorney fee structure, limiting the use of the assignment of benefits and other measures favored by the insurance industry to reduce litigation.
Further, the OIR reported that Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the insurer of last resort, showed financial improvement over the past year. Citizens’ surplus increased by approximately 17.5% from previous years and it posted a net income in 2023 of $746 million, compared with a loss of $2.2 billion in 2022, it said. Additionally, Citizens’ combined ratio improved from the previous year from 204.4 to 59.5, it said. Companies taking out policies from Citizens also helped reduce Citizens’ exposure by more than $113 billion, it said.
The top five writers of homeowners multiperil insurance in Florida in 2022, based on direct premiums written, were: Citizens Property Insurance Corp., with 15.62% market share; Universal Insurance Holdings Group, 10%; State Farm Group, 6.68%; Florida Peninsula Group, 4.53%; and Tower Hill Group, 4.44%, according to BestLink.