Latest Florida Headlines

All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Hurricane Debby Florida Losses Top $121M; 60% of Claims Closed

Sep 11 2024 // A month after Hurricane Debby made landfall in northern Florida, the number of property insurance claims has reached almost 20,000, and total estimated insured losses are more than $121.5 million, the Florida Office of...

Florida Governor Floats Condo Relief Session; Condo Captive Idea Flagging

Sep 10 2024 // Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged lawmakers to weigh ideas on providing condominium owners with relief ahead of a Jan. 1 deadline that requires condo buildings to be inspected and repaired in the wake of the Surfside condo...

Florida-based FCCI Moving Into Excess and Surplus Market Oct. 1

Sep 6 2024 // Sarasota-based FCCI Insurance Group will soon start writing excess and surplus lines across much of the country, the carrier announced this week.Florida, Georgia and Texas insurance agents can submit general liability and...

NCCI Calls For Tiny Workers’ Comp Rate Decrease for Florida After New Doctor Fees

Sep 4 2024 // Annual workers’ compensation rate cuts in the double digits have become routine in almost every U.S. state in recent years. That trend may have now come to an end in Florida, where the National Council on...

Sponsor of Florida Anti-Squatting Bill Indicted on Forgery Charges

Sep 3 2024 // TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Republican state representative in central Florida, a lead sponsor of an anti-squatting property rights bill signed into law this year, has been indicted on felony forgery charges related to...

How One Florida Engineer Charged Others With Fraudulent Insurance Reports, Testimony

Sep 3 2024 // He’s been called a “do-gooder,” a “troublemaker” and a whistleblower. And he may be the best friend the Florida property insurance industry has.A mechanical engineer based in Edgewater, George...

Hurricane Debby Claims Already Two-Thirds of Idalia Claims in Florida, as Insurance Market Strengthens, Regulator Says

Sep 2 2024 // The number of Florida claims from Hurricane Debby, filed within 10 days of the storm, stood at almost two-thirds of the number of claims filed from Hurricane Idalia in a three-month period.Debby claims by Aug. 16 had...

Downward Departure: Florida Insurance Agent Charged with Embezzling Premiums After He Was Hit with Lawsuits, Complaint

Sep 2 2024 // Florida authorities in August arrested a well-known southwest Florida insurance agent, charging him with larceny and embezzlement of premiums.Reid McDaniel, 33, who was named the honorary mayor of North Fort Myers last...

RLI Insurance Wants 16% Rate Hike in Florida on Umbrella, Filing Shows

Aug 30 2024 // RLI Insurance, a specialty insurer serving niche markets, will raise rates on personal umbrella policies, including uninsured motorists’ coverage, by an average of 16%, starting Sept. 1, according to a use-and-file...

Audit Finds Some Florida Citizens’ Policies Over Limit, Small Use of Clearinghouse

Aug 29 2024 // Florida’s state-created Citizens Property Insurance Corp., has a few issues it needs to address, including policies with coverage values above its statutory limit, not sending enough renewals to its Clearinghouse,...

FCBI, a Florida Workers’ Comp Fund, Acquires MidSouth Mutual in Tennessee

Aug 26 2024 // FCBI, a self-insurance fund founded 45 years ago to provide workers’ compensation plans to Florida citrus growers, is expanding well beyond the Sunshine State with the acquisition of MidSouth Mutual Insurance Co. in...

Florida Peninsula MGA Changes Name to Windward Risk Managers

Aug 21 2024 // Florida Peninsula Managers, the managing general agency for Florida Peninsula Insurance and Edison Insurance, has officially changed its name to Windward Risk Managers, the name of the company that has managed it for...

South Florida Man Charged with Unlicensed Public Adjusting in 2022

Aug 19 2024 // Investigators with Florida’s Department of Financial Services last week charged a south Florida man with acting as a public adjuster without a license and defrauding policyholders of more than $34,000.It’s the...

Downward Spiral: Florida Insurance Agent Charged with Embezzlement After Lawsuits

Aug 16 2024 // Florida authorities have arrested a well-known southwest Florida insurance agent, charging him with larceny and embezzlement of premiums.Reid McDaniel, 33, who was named the honorary mayor of North Fort Myers last year but...

Debby’s Florida Claims Already Near 12,000 as Yaworsky Says Market Is Strengthening

Aug 12 2024 // The number of Florida claims from Hurricane Debby, filed within five days of the storm, already is almost half of the number of claims filed from Hurricane Idalia in a three-month period.Debby claims by Friday had reached...

IMA Financial Spreads Into Florida Market with Wallace Welch & Willingham

Aug 9 2024 // IMA Financial Group, a large brokerage specializing in wealth management and risk advice, is moving into the Florida commercial property insurance market with the merger of Wallace Welch & Willingham Inc. WW&W,...

Heritage Sees Improved Profits, Plans to Resume Writing in Florida, Other States

Aug 8 2024 // Tampa-based Heritage Insurance, enjoying improved profits for the second quarter this year, said it plans to resume writing new policies in Florida and Northeastern states, two years after it ceased new business in the...

Florida CFO Issues Order on Public Adjusters as Debby Floods Carolinas

Aug 8 2024 // Significant flooding was expected across southeast North Carolina and eastern South Carolina Thursday and Friday as Tropical Storm Debby made a second landfill just north of Charleston.“Debby will continue to slowly...

Florida Insurer Can’t Object to Appraiser After the Award Is Decided, 11th Circuit Says

Aug 8 2024 // If a property insurer is going to object to an appraisal panel member’s fee arrangement, it must do so early in the process – not after the panel provides an unfavorable, multimillion-dollar appraisal award.That...

Hurricane Debby Data Due to Florida OIR Thursday and Friday

Aug 7 2024 // The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation said it is reminding property insurers in the state to file Hurricane Debby claims data Thursday and Friday this week.Insurers should use the Simplified 2024 Catastrophe Reporting...