Citizens Property Insurance Corp. recently announced its proposed rate increases for 2014. Homeowners covered by Florida’s state-backed insurer can expect an average 6.6 percent increase, but homeowners purchasing sinkhole coverage will not fare as well: The company is asking for a steep 24.8 percent hike (statewide average) over current rates.
The National Flood Insurance Program is a program managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Congress made some changes in 2012 that are prompting a big reaction in South Florida. Properties that are mortgaged and fall in a flood zone require flood insurance, and in Miami, that means a lot of people pay these premiums. In fact, 37 percent of all flood insurance policies cover properties in Florida, and 47,362 of those properties can be found in Miami-Dade County.
We are wrapping up our discussion of the responsibilities, accountabilities and jurisdiction of the Federal Insurance Office. The FIO was created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and insurance companies are wondering what exactly to make of it.
The insurance industry is one of the most highly regulated industries in the country. As a result, insurers did not warmly embrace the idea of the Federal Insurance Office, created under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The federal government had to make it clear that the FIO would not be another regulator and would have only limited powers to affect an insurance company’s operations.
We are discussing insurance regulation in the wake of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The federal government has traditionally not had a lot to do with the day-to-day operation of the insurance industry, thanks in part to the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945. But Dodd-Frank established something called the Federal Insurance Office, and insurance companies, state regulators and consumers alike are wondering what exactly the agency’s role is.
Insurance regulation: Dodd-Frank and the tension between federal and state oversight
Insurance rating is a black box in many ways. There are so many layers of data that go into it, in fact, that rating may be more like a matryoshka doll made up of nesting analytical processes.
We are wrapping up our discussion of a recent Florida Court of Appeal decision. An auto insurance company had denied coverage to a man who had been injured in a golf cart accident. The insured was at fault, but he had been driving a modified golf cart, one that could exceed the average 20 mph maximum speed and, so, could be driven on public roads.
We are still talking about a recent Florida court of appeal decision in an auto insurance case. The decision is noteworthy because it involves golf carts — specifically, a modified golf cart driven on a public road. Generally, the only way to get a golf cart to go above 20 miles an hour is to make some modifications. The owner of the insured in this case had done just that, ostensibly so he could drive on public roads.
It is impossible to ignore the fact that Baby Boomers are getting older. For Florida, a state dotted with retirement communities, this is good news. For Florida drivers, however, there is a distinct downside: Older drivers tend to have slower reflexes and slower reaction times behind the wheel, and, as a result, they are more likely to be in accidents. Baby Boomers grew up with their cars, though, so getting them to give up driving is an uphill battle.
