BRADENTON, Fla. — It was a sinking feeling the moment Bradenton resident Ira Kasdan got the letter last month that he was being dropped by Progressive Insurance.
DROPPED BY PROGRESSIVE
"Dear Policyholder, your policy will expire at 12:01 on July 1st , 2024, for the following reasons. After careful consideration we are unable to offer you a renewal policy due to a reduction in our hurricane exposure. Please contact your agent to find replacement coverage," the letter read.
Last fall Progressive confirmed to ABC Action News that they will not renew policies in Florida beginning in May of 2024 to "rebalance our exposure" they told us in a statement.
"I was shocked, I was stunned," Kasdan said. "There may be a time where as much as we love Florida we may not be able to stay here."
DIFFICULT FINDING A NEW INSURANCE COMPANY
As a retiree on social security, his fears don't stop there. He said finding information on potential new companies is not easy. He emailed ABC Action News for help.
"These are no-name carriers, companies you have never heard of. Or they have been around 2 to 7 years and in some cases, they seem to be off-shoots of bankrupt carrier or carriers who left the state," Kasdan said. "I'm afraid we spend a lot of money to buy coverage and all we have is a promise of coverage that might not be any good if we need it."
He sent a list of things he'd like to see on a centralized website, urging the state to put together a one-stop shop online tool to help consumers shopping for new coverage.
"I really wish the state would be proactive," he said. "Put up a website with metrics of all the carrier's doing business in the state: How long have you done business? How many homeowners do they insure? What is the percentage of claims being paid? How long did it take you to pay them?"
SOME INFORMATION IS NOT MADE PUBLIC
ABC Action News spoke with the Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis' office who offered a long list of resources available to consumers, but data this detailed and broken down by company is not available for the public a spokesperson said, citing much of the information is trade secrets, propriety to the insurance companies to keep the property insurance market competitive.
"The idea that customer satisfaction ratings are a trade secret sounds like baloney," Kasdan said. "The information on how these new carriers handle claims and how happy or unhappy the customers are shouldn't be a secret. That is what people need to be able to decide which company they want to do business with."
Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute said there is no one-stop shop for consumers looking for a new insurance company.
"It's not to hide information from consumers, it's to hide information from competitors. It's very common," Friedlander said. "The consumers insurance agent needs to be the advocate in this process."
Friedlander recommended consumers use third-party sites that independently rate insurance companies. He provided a list for consumers to start.
There were also several links and resources sent from both the Chief Financial Officer's Office and the Office of Insurance Regulations. Several links, but again no centralized, easy-to-navigate location.
We have posted all of those resources below:
INSURANCE INFORMATION INSTITUTE RESOURCES
Third-party insurance company reviews:
www.Bankrate.com [bankrate.com]
www.Insurify.com [insurify.com]
www.thezebra.com [thezebra.com]
www.trustedchoice.com [trustedchoice.com]
Objective customer reviews:
www.trustpilot.com [trustpilot.com]
Financial ratings:
www.Demotech.com [demotech.com]
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER'S OFFICE RESOURCES
Here’s some good resources and consumer assistance info from our website. OIR & Citizens have industry reports but like we discussed it won’t be as specific per company as some would like.
- Consumer Resources – Homeowners Insurance - https://www.myfloridacfo.com/division/consumers/understanding-insurance/homeownersinsuranceoverview [myfloridacfo.com]
- Homeowners’ insurance toolkit: https://www.myfloridacfo.com/docs-sf/consumer-services-libraries/consumerservices-documents/understanding-coverage/consumer-guides/english---homeowners-insurance-toolkit.pdf?sfvrsn=1a17d80c_2 [myfloridacfo.com]
- Top 5 Common Concerns: https://www.myfloridacfo.com/division/consumers/understanding-insurance/faq/home [myfloridacfo.com]
- Here’s some industry reporting from OIR: https://floir.com/resources-and-reports/industry-reports [floir.com]
- Good info from Citizens on rates and other media resources: https://www.citizensfla.com/media-resources [citizensfla.com]
OFFICE OF INSURANCE REGULATION RESOURCES
Consumer Resources
If a consumer receives a nonrewnewal notice, they are encouraged to contact their agent immediately to seek alternate coverage. Insurers are required to comply with Florida Law regarding the permissible reasons for cancellation or nonrenewal of homeowners policies. This includes a required 120 days' notice before the effective date of the nonrenewal, to give consumers adequate time to find alternate coverage. Specific timelines for notice requirements of varied policy coverages can be found in s. 627.4133, F.S [leg.state.fl.us].
OIR offers a few resources to help consumers choose the best policy for them. For instance, to assist consumers in determining the best policy for their needs, OIR also offers the CHOICES rate comparison tool to provide consumers with rate information for various types of insurance. The CHOICES tools for auto and homeowners insurance are based on three pre-defined model risk scenarios to provide the consumer with sample average rates in any Florida county. The CHOICES rate tool is available here - https://www.floir.com/consumers/choices-rate-comparison-search [floir.com].
Consumers can also search active companies on the OIR Active Company Search. On this database, consumers can search by any combination of company name, company type, address type, and authorized lines of business. Active companies will have information regarding their company type, authorization status, and authorized lines of business. The OIR Active Company Search is available here - https://companysearch.myfloridacfo.gov/ [companysearch.myfloridacfo.gov].
A full list of OIR’s Consumer Resources is available on our website here - https://www.floir.com/consumers [floir.com].
Data Resources
OIR offers data resources that provide additional information about regulated entities.
Residential Market Share Reports – OIR publishes market share reports quarterly which contain information about policies in force, premium, and claims. Those reports are available on OIR’s website here - https://floir.com/tools-and-data/residential-market-share-reports [floir.com].
- QUASR – Additional data regarding policies in Florida is available in QUASR. The QUASR database will allow you to run reports for policies in force by quarter, by county, by policy type and by company for companies writing in Florida. Please note, data for companies filing Trade Secret will not appear within the database or the top 25 reports linked. The list of companies filing Trade Secret is available on the OIR website, including the date for which they began filing as trade secret. The QUASR database is available here - https://apps.fldfs.com/QSRNG/Reports/ReportCriteriaWizard.aspx [apps.fldfs.com].
- Insurer Stability Unit Report – OIR publishes the Insurer Stability Report on January 1 and July 31. The report contains information about the stability of property and casualty insurers and offers information about average insurance premiums by county. The latest Insurer Stability Report is available here - https://floir.com/docs-sf/default-source/property-and-casualty/stability-unit-reports/january-2024-isu-report_final.pdf?sfvrsn=7b9dee69_4 [floir.com]. Previous Insurer Stability Reports are available on OIR’s website here, under “Property Insurance Stability Report” - https://floir.com/resources-and-reports/industry-reports [floir.com].
- NAIC Complaint & Financial Information by Company – The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) offers a consumer database which allows individuals to look up company complaint and financial information by state and insurance type. The database is available here - https://content.naic.org/cis_consumer_information.htm [content.naic.org].
- Insurer Compliance Report – OIR is required to publish a quarterly insurer compliance report. This report details all market regulation actions OIR took for the previous quarter. The most recent Insurer Compliance Report is available here - https://floir.com/docs-sf/default-source/market-regulation/insurer-compliance/january-2024-insurer-compliance-report.pdf?sfvrsn=4d054fd4_2 [floir.com]. A full list of Insurer Compliance Reports is available on this page under, “Insurer Compliance” - https://floir.com/resources-and-reports/industry-reports [floir.com].
