market news

Florida insurance market still a house of cards despite slow hurricane season

(NAPLES NEWS) - As the 2009 hurricane season uneventfully draws to a close at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, insurers, regulators and state officials are looking ahead to bolster the house of cards that is Florida’s property insurance market.

Private insurers have had another year with no hurricanes, yet many remain on shaky financial ground as they weather non-hurricane losses and stormy investment markets that have hindered efforts to rebuild surpluses necessary to pay claims from the next big storm.

State regulators have begun to take action against financially vulnerable companies and ratchet up rates at the state-run insurance pool that has become the largest insurer of property in Florida.

Elected officials are eyeing what is politically possible in the short-term to fine-tune a statewide program that provides incentives for owners to hurricane-proof their homes and reduce the state’s exposure to a catastrophic hurricane.

Read full story