Florida property insurance companies, their policyholders, and repair contractors are starting the New Year with a new law designed to reform an out-of-control marketplace. The Florida Legislature in December passed comprehensive measures to stem high insurance and reinsurance rates, carrier insolvencies, inflated claims, excessive litigation, and an overly-competitive residual market.Former Florida Deputy Insurance Commissioner Lisa Miller talks with Citizens Property Insurance President & CEO Barry Gilway, insurance agency executive Andy McGuire, and reinsurance broker Adam Schwebach about the new law and the expectation it will help rebalance Florida’s decimated property insurance market.Show NotesSix Florida insurance companies went insolvent in 2022 and a seventh went into a regulated policy run-off. Host Miller was joined in the podcast by Barry Gilway, President, CEO, and Executive Director of Citizens Property Insurance; Adam Schwebach, Executive Vice President of reinsurance broker Gallagher Re; and Andy McGuire, Co-CEO of PEAK6 InsurTech, which includes an insurance agency representing more than 100,000 policyholders. (For full Show Notes, visit https://lisamillerassociates.com/episode-42-barry-gilway-floridas-new-law-is-a-profound-change/) The major provisions of the new law (SB 2-A) cover:Attorney Fees: Ends one-way attorney fees in residential and commercial property insurance policy lawsuits;Offers of Judgment: Reinstates the civil offer of judgment statute (also known as Proposals for Settlement) and makes attorney fees available for the prevailing party, while also allowing for joint offers of judgment;AOBS: Prohibits Assignment of Benefits (AOB) contracts of residential and commercial property insurance policies issued on or after January 1, 2023;Bad Faith: Prohibits the filing of a bad faith lawsuit until a final judgement is issued against the insurance company in the original claim dispute;Citizens Property Insurance Reforms: Makes many essential improvements to current laws governing the state-backed “insurer of last resort,” Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, including:- Changing the eligibility to remain a Citizens policyholder, by requiring that private insurance company coverage has to be 20% more expensive (up from 15%, to match current rules on new policies) and likewise for commercial residential policies;- Ending capped rates (the so-called “glide-path”) and requiring its rates be actuarially-sound and be “non-competitive” with admitted companies’ market rates;- Defining and allowing higher rates for second (non-homesteaded) homes; and- Requiring personal lines policyholders purchase flood insurance to become or remain a Citizens policyholder.Reinsurance: Establishes a second optional hurricane reinsurance fund (The Florida Optional Reinsurance Assistance Program) for carriers, offering rates of 50% to 65% of the cost of on-line rates, while maintaining the Reinsurance to Assist Policyholders (RAP) program created in the May special session;Arbitration: Allows carriers to offer mandatory binding arbitration in their policies with a resulting premium discount;Claims Handling: Reduces from 90 days to 60 days the time insurance companies have to pay or deny a claim, unless extended by regulators; and reduce from 14 days to 7 days the time a carrier has to review and acknowledge a claim communication and begin an investigation, along with other time requirement changes;Claim Filing: Further tightens deadlines for policyholders to report a claim from 2 years to 1 year for a new or reopened claim, and from 3 years to 18 months for a supplemental claim; andGreater OIR Regulation: Allows the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) to withdraw approval of policies with an appraisal clause for companies that routinely invoke it; allows OIR to do market conduct exams after a hurricane on those companies in the top 20% of claims filed or DFS complaints and to include an examination of their MGAs; and requires companies begin monthly reporting of the numbers of claims opened, closed, pending, and those seeking alternative dispute resolution and of which type.You can read a more detailed list of major provisions here of the December 2022 law, built upon previous measures passed in the May 2022 legislative special session.Attorney Fees & AOBs: Gilway, a 46-year veteran of the property insurance industry, called the law “historic,” for repealing the state’s one-way attorney fee statute which he blamed for putting seven insurance companies out of business in 2022, reducing the availability and affordable of insurance for consumers. “From a Citizens Insurance standpoint, our average litigation payment is $77,000 and the attorney fee associated with that payment is $39,000. I’m paying more than 1,000 attorneys to defend the 20,000 outstanding lawsuits we have, brought because there’s an automatic payment under the one-way statute. You have ...
