PIA of Florida obtains answers about Poe Financial, its subsidiaries
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TITLE: News Currents
Questions and answers about the receivership and status of Poe Financial Corp.’s subsidiaries Southern Family and Atlantic Preferred have been provided to Professional Insurance Agents of Florida members who “flooded” the association’s office with questions after reports that the companies were in trouble.
“This issue has been reported to varying degrees in newspapers throughout the state with sometimes confusing conclusions,” Mark O’Connell, PIA of Florida CEO, said. “Rather than assume what is or might be happening we wanted to ask the people who will be responsible for handling this matter.”
PIA of Florida contacted Tom Brinkley, Department of Financial Services’ receivership coordinator, and Ed Pasterick of the National Flood Insurance Plan and asked them to answer as many questions as possible.
PIA of Florida provided its members with “the best answers that are available, but due to the complexity of the issues, the timing of events to occur, and the various parties involved, the DFS just doesn’t have all the answers developed quite yet.”
Q:Is there any sense as to when the courts would or could sign off on the plan?
At this point, the only dates we know are those outlined in the anticipated timeline. Southern Family went into rehabilitation April 26, and Atlantic Preferred May 1.
Q: If there are new claims, what happens if there is a claim that exceeds the Florida Insurance Guaranty Fund limit?
If a loss occurs during the period in which FIGA is responsible for coverage (or if a pre-occurring loss remains unpaid at the time of liquidation), then it will be subject to FIGA’s statutory cap and applicable deductible.
Q: What happens with policies in which Poe has already sent out non-renewals notices?
Policyholders should pay premiums as normal in order to continue their insurance coverage. Policyholders who have received renewal notices for renewal periods beginning prior to July 1, should pay premiums to continue their coverage after the renewal date, unless they obtain coverage elsewhere.
Under the receivership plan, if approved by the court, the policies that are still in force with Southern Family on June 30 will be transitioned to Citizens Property Insurance Corp. automatically by court order until the normal expiration of the policy (unless it is cancelled earlier by the policyholder or for non-payment of premium).
Citizens is aware that policyholders whose policies have normal expiration dates in July will have limited time in which to receive any offers of renewed coverage from Citizens and is currently working on a method for notifying these policyholders of their future coverage options.
Q: Poe wrote many condo-unit owner policies that are in the wind pool, but they included wind coverage on the HO6 policies. Citizens doesn’t do this so what will happen to these policies?
Our understanding is that Citizens will provide the coverage as it existed under the Poe policy until the expiration of that policy term.
Q: What if there is a coverage on the Poe policy that Citizens doesn’t cover?
Our understanding is that Citizens will provide the coverage as it existed under the Poe policy until the expiration of that policy term.