[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by Zenstyle

What are the results of the two pieces of legislation passed by the Florida congress to rein in insurance companies?

What do you mean by "rein in"?

The state already has complete control over the rates they'll allow as well as pretty much every other aspect of the contract.

So the company then has to decide if that is acceptable or not.

If you are talking about lowering costs that then determine the rates, this article should help.

https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com...ce-436726.aspx

In short, it's meant to greatly reduce the lawyer-construction lawsuit machine from inflating costs.

[Ice_Major]

Originally Posted by sinatras

It doesn't really matter WHY (insert alleged reason here) insurance companies are leaving Florida, California or whatever state. It doesn't really matter WHY (insert alleged reason here) insurance companies are doubling or tripling premiums, or engaging in other shenanigans. It's a waste of time doing the blame game, and insurance companies will keep doing their greedy thing.

What DOES matter is the fact that none of our elected officials are doing anything to help the consumer. Nothing that DeSantis or Newsom or anyone has done has stopped insurance companies from leaving or insurance companies from price-gouging citizens; that is going to continue.

What they (elected officials) need to do is help consumers faced with out of control cost of living increases and lack of coverage, such as insurance premiums, by offering tax credits or some other kind of subsidy.

People are moving in great numbers to disaster prone states and areas. Unfortunately, some of the most popular relocation spots have terrible weather from a catastrophe standpoint. May be cold in Minnesota, but at least there are no hurricanes, wildfires, sinkholes, or significant windstorms to worry about. People do forget, insurance is a business not a charity. They must price their product to be profitable. If natural disasters and greedy attorneys are driving up the price, it is what it is.

[Lillie767]

Originally Posted by sinatras

It doesn't really matter WHY (insert alleged reason here) insurance companies are leaving Florida, California or whatever state. It doesn't really matter WHY (insert alleged reason here) insurance companies are doubling or tripling premiums, or engaging in other shenanigans. It's a waste of time doing the blame game, and insurance companies will keep doing their greedy thing.

What DOES matter is the fact that none of our elected officials are doing anything to help the consumer. Nothing that DeSantis or Newsom or anyone has done has stopped insurance companies from leaving or insurance companies from price-gouging citizens; that is going to continue.

What they (elected officials) need to do is help consumers faced with out of control cost of living increases and lack of coverage, such as insurance premiums, by offering tax credits or some other kind of subsidy.

If insurance companies were as greedy as you allege, a rational conclusion would be that they would continue to exploit businesses in which they generate profits.

Since they are leaving Florida, a reasonably intelligent and rational person would logically conclude that they are not generating profits in Florida. If they were generating profits in Florida, they would try to expand their coverage in Florida.


But you conclude that the insurance companies are leaving Florida because they are greedy.


Could you please explain how you arrived at this conclusion?

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by Lillie767

If insurance companies were as greedy as you allege, a rational conclusion would be that they would continue to exploit businesses in which they generate profits.

Since they are leaving Florida, a reasonably intelligent and rational person would logically conclude that they are not generating profits in Florida. If they were generating profits in Florida, they would try to expand their coverage in Florida.


But you conclude that the insurance companies are leaving Florida because they are greedy.


Could you please explain how you arrived at this conclusion?

Answer: Irrational opinions borne of past state propaganda that the insurance companies are the problem despite the states having complete control over what rates they charge.

Even Citizens in their annual reports says they're underpriced. The difference of course is that the insurers have intelligent educated financial markets pressuring them....and Citizens has um....other people pressuring them to keep their rates cheap.

What you are seeing now is the inevitable outcome of that disparity.

P.S. Imagine if the state capped all grocery store items at 5% below profitability. What would happen? Would the "greedy" grocers close their stores?

[Bailey340]

Companies have to make a profit. I’m surprised that instead of leaving a market like Florida (3rd most populous state) why not charge what it costs to cover the risk while making the same amount of profit that you would get from policies in safer states. The policies might be $10,000 a year, but at least people will have a choice.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by Bailey340

Companies have to make a profit. I’m surprised that instead of leaving a market like Florida (3rd most populous state) why not charge what it costs to cover the risk while making the same amount of profit that you would get from policies in safer states. The policies might be $10,000 a year, but at least people will have a choice.

Because the dirty little secret.

Unlike Bread, Cars or Umbrellas...the state has to approve all prices for home, car and other insurance.

So, basically the state due to political pressure (this has been going on for decades) doesn't want to let insureres charge that because it's a big number.

I cannot make this any more clear, the STATE SETS ALL PRICES FOR HOME AND CAR INSURANCE via approval.

P.S. Imagine trying to buy an umbrella in FL if the state capped all prices to $2 and then mandated umbrella reporting, taxes, performance laws etc. etc. Frankly the insurance market in FL has been so polluted with lies that you see repeated here that it's perpetuated the problem and yes this goes back 10-20+ years

[Ghaati]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

Because the dirty little secret.

Unlike Bread, Cars or Umbrellas...the state has to approve all prices for home, car and other insurance.

So, basically the state due to political pressure (this has been going on for decades) doesn't want to let insureres charge that because it's a big number.

I cannot make this any more clear, the STATE SETS ALL PRICES FOR HOME AND CAR INSURANCE via approval.

P.S. Imagine trying to buy an umbrella in FL if the state capped all prices to $2 and then mandated umbrella reporting, taxes, performance laws etc. etc. Frankly the insurance market in FL has been so polluted with lies that you see repeated here that it's perpetuated the problem and yes this goes back 10-20+ years

Insurers can't charge any more than what people will pay. There is such a thing as a loss leader, and law of averages. I don't know if they do it in Insurance but in retail, a large chain can have a few stores, or even a state's worth of stores, that loses money for the company. As long as the rest of the chain makes bank. They can write off the losses, and give themselves a lovely tax break overall.

There were some Dunkin Donuts franchises like that where I used to live. The guy owned six of them, three in the same town, on the same street, all within 2 miles of each other. During any given month, at least one of them lost money for him. But the rest carried him and he was making close to a million bucks a year in income over expenses. If he had shut one of them down, someone else might've taken the business and become competition. I imagine an insurance company like Farmers' wouldn't miss one state's worth of profits, when it does business in another 49 states.

So I'm not convinced that "the state sets the prices" is the reason. Or at least, not the only reason. I think a lot of it has to do with the roofing debacle, where roofing companies (legit and not legit) scammed the insurance companies after Hurricane Maria by submitting the claims on behalf of homeowners. Many of those homeowners didn't need new roofs and weren't even affected by the hurricane. But the laws in the state - the DEregulation - created a nightmare of payouts that the insurance companies were obligated to provide.

And then there were the actual damages caused by various hurricanes, especially within the last decade. The insurance companies have had to pay out more than they've taken in, in many areas of the state. So rather than risk continuing to pay out more than they take in, they're closing shop. They can't charge $600,000 a year in insurance just in case a $600k home is totaled by a hurricane. They now have rules about the roof replacements. But rather than deal with that, it might be easier for them to just not cover anyone at all in this state. The regulations here are nuts. But so are the risks for the insurance companies.

[Corrie22]

guys you're not paying attention here....

Farmers is not leaving the state......Bristol West, Foremost SignatureSM, Farmers GroupSelectSM, Foremost Choice and Foremost...are all still Farmers...and they are all still writing policies

..the new law does not allow the right to assign benefits....but only on new policies written after Jan 1

this is Farmers way...risk assessment...to move those old policies into new policies...that do not have ”assign benefits”

Farmers is not the 4th to leave the Florida market.....Farmers did not leave the Florida market...the ”news” is lying to you again

[Travelassie]

Originally Posted by Corrie22

guys you're not paying attention here....

Farmers is not leaving the state......Bristol West, Foremost SignatureSM, Farmers GroupSelectSM, Foremost Choice and Foremost...are all still Farmers...and they are all still writing policies

..the new law does not allow the right to assign benefits....but only on new policies written after Jan 1

this is Farmers way...risk assessment...to move those old policies into new policies...that do not have ”assign benefits”

Farmers is not the 4th to leave the Florida market.....Farmers did not leave the Florida market...the ”news” is lying to you again

Thanks for the clarification! Moving old policies from Farmers into one of their family companies?

If so, that's what happened with our homeowners' insurance with Federated National last summer. This policy was assumed by Monarch National, a "family" company ( I guess, not sure of the relationship). The rates were raised significantly, but it looks like the coverage was also improved.

[Lillie767]

I wish chicken little would stop running around. Only certain Farmers-branded policyholders are affected. More mass hysteria caused by poor reporting by so-called news outlets. I wouldn't trust them to report accurately that the sun rose in the morning.


"This announcement only impacts those with Farmers-branded policies. A spokesperson wrote in a statement, “Farmers offers insurance through several different brands, and this decision applies only to policies issued through our exclusive agency distribution channel. There is no impact to 70% of policies currently in force for customers in the state, including Bristol West®, Foremost SignatureSM, Farmers GroupSelectSM, Foremost Choice® and Foremost®-branded policies. Such policies will continue to be available to serve the insurance needs of Floridians. Affected customers will receive notifications detailing when their coverage will end and will be advised of options for replacement coverage.”

Friedlander says policyholders should not panic, “It could take a year before you receive a non-renewal notice. Those with open Hurricane Ian claims should not panic either.”

“For the Farmers customers that are impacted by [Tuesday’s] decision, you will get a formal written notice from the company 120 days in advance of your policy renewal date,” Friedlander added. “So nobody’s policy is getting cancelled right away. Nobody’s policy is getting canceled midterm.”

Policyholders are safe this hurricane season"

https://winknews.com/2023/07/11/farm...group-florida/