Archives for March 2022

“Parallax” is a fairly simple physics phenomenon brought to mind by an article in the Insurance Journal(IJ) titled: “Florida Lawsuit Charges United P&C With RICO Violations in Widespread Claims Denials.”  (See NOTE #1 below)

Webster defines parallax as an apparent change in the position of an object resulting from a change in position of the viewer.  In the rendering above, for example, if the viewer moves far enough to either the right or left he/she wouldn’t even be able to see the moon.  [Read more…] about The Parallax Point of View!

You’ve heard me call Citizens Property Insurance Company (Citizens) a “safety valve” for Florida’s property market. I look at it this way: when things get rough in the private market it’s a safe haven for those that private carriers don’t want to insure, or those who can’t afford the approved rate.

Technically, however, Citizens is a state backed carrier that relies on assessments to cover intentionally repressed rates. Similar to an assessable reciprocal (See Fla. Statutes Chapter 629) but without the “attorney in fact” and with the added benefit of being able to assess every policyholder, including those that aren’t insured in Citizens and those that don’t even own a home.

One of Citizens prime missions is to keep its’ policy count and thus its’ assessment exposure as low as possible, low enough to avoid an assessment. At its’ December 2021 board meeting, Chairman Carlos Beruff, said lawmakers “…have given us an impossible task!” [Read more…] about “They Have Given Us An Impossible Task!”

My last report referenced “greed” as the primary ingredient disintegrating Florida’s delicate property market.  Specifically: a quest for billable hours and devious and deceptive solicitations.  There was also a little politics as usual. The latter manifested in a House of Representatives that not only failed to implement needed reforms but, was never given the chance to debate them.

[Read more…] about Always Enough…

SB-1728 passed the Florida Senate last Thursday, but…according to numerous reports, it’s stalled in the House and may possibly die there.  Thus signaling our property markets last breath and the collapse of the fragile House of Cards lawmakers created after the ‘04/’05 storms. [Read more…] about The Tipping Point!