Scott Wallace, the President and CEO of Citizens Property Insurance Corp., has announced that he will be stepping down on April 6, 2012 from his positions in the corporation. Wallace has been the CEO for the insurer for over six years, and has been the head of the company throughout a time when it underwent a significant amount of growth and became the largest provider of homeowners’ insurance in Florida, reaching approximately 1.5 million policies. Citizens did face some scrutiny after state officials and Governor Rick Scott worked to find…
Read MoreTag: Governor Rick Scott
Insurance reform takes a backseat in Florida Legislature, Insurance Council continues to press forward with changes
As insurance reform loses momentum amongst legislators, the Florida Insurance Council says that it will continue pushing for major changes to the state’s regulations and the Citizens Property Insurance group. Reform has fallen to the wayside in the current session of the state’s Legislature, which will begin next week. While lawmakers focus more on budget and redistricting, the much needed insurance changes are not to be considered until the next legislative session, which will happen much later in the year. The Insurance Council is pushing for changes to the state’s…
Read MoreCitizens board of governors submits new legislative agenda to Florida lawmakers
The governing board of Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has agreed on a new legislative agenda that could save the state-run insurance program more than $1.5 billion in insured losses. The board met with state legislators this week in Orlando to discuss the agenda, particularly what legislators can do to make the insurance program more efficient. The board expressed the importance of making cuts to the types of properties the program can insure and has begun pressuring lawmakers to hasten the rate at which premiums can rise. Earlier this year,…
Read MoreFlorida legislators consider allowing surplus insurers to participate in Citizens Property Insurance Corp
In an effort to make Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. more sustainable in the future, lawmakers are now considering opening up the state-run insurance program to surplus carriers. Legislators believe that by allowing surplus insurers to participate, the program will go through a depopulation period as consumers take advantage of the wider variety in policies they have access to. Currently, the state-run program covers more than 1.5 million policyholders. With the program being so large, Governor Rick Scott believes that the only two solutions for sustainability lie in depopulating or…
Read MoreFlorida prepares for the battle against PIP fraud
Residents in Florida have joined with business associations and law enforcement agencies to create the Gear Up Florida Coalition, with the goal of protecting insurance consumers in the state from the skyrocketing costs that are resulting from the increasing instance of fraud to its no-fault law. According to Tammy Perdue, the Florida General Counsel for Associated Industries, they want to bring fraud from car accidents to an end and change the organized systems that are encouraging these criminal behaviors. She explained that it will be critical for legislative action to…
Read MoreFlorida’s Governor Scott announces effort to beat auto insurance fraud
Governor Rick Scott from Florida spoke to citizens and other politicians about the problem of auto insurance fraud within the state, and announced that he would be looking to Hillsborough County in order to come up with ideas for overcoming it. Scott stated that they “have to get rid of fraud”. Many law enforcement officers and county officials sat with Scott as they discussed this goal. Jeff Atwater, the Chief Financial Officer in Florida, declared with Scott that they will be using Hillsborough as inspiration for their efforts to completely…
Read MoreChief of the Florida hurricane fund voices concerns regarding cash shortage
The chief operating officer of the hurricane fund in Florida, Jack Nicholson, has expressed serious concerns about the fund’s ability to assist insurance companies in paying for claims that have been made following major storms. Florida has been using the hurricane fund for almost two decades, since the time when the southern part of the state was devastated by Hurricane Andrew. Money from the fund is provided to insurance companies in order to assist them in paying off claims made by homeowners in the event of a hurricane – or…
Read More