Fla. Task Force to Discuss How to Solve Hurricane Insurance Crisis

A 12-member Task Force on Long-Term Solutions for Florida’s Hurricane Insurance Market is studying how to help Floridians obtain hurricane insurance, amid complaints that consumers don’t have a seat on the panel.

The task force was ordered by the Legis-lature last spring to address issues lingering from the 2004 hurricanes. It is required specifically to look at thousands of policies insurers are now turning away, forcing more homeowners into the state-run Citizens Property Insurance.

The legislation requires Gov. Jeb Bush’s three appointments to include a voice for “insurance consumers.” In that slot, Bush named Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes Inc., a group founded by the state’s largest insurers.

“Our whole organization is focused on homeowners. I think mitigation is the center pin of the solution for this whole challenge, which is why I think we’ve been brought to the table,” Chapman-Henderson, a former Allstate corporate relations executive said.

Consumer needs-from broad coverage to affordable premiums to prompt claims payment-are most often voiced by insurance agents, task force member David Cobb, president of the Freedom Insurers agency told the Fort Myers News-Press.

Bush also appointed Florida Home Builders Association President Dan Gilmore, a Pensacola home builder.

Seven other members named by CFO Tom Gallagher and Senate President Tom Lee include Robert Hartwig from the New York-based Insurance Information Institute.

Gallagher said he would have Steve Burgess, the state’s insurance consumer advocate, follow the task force closely.

House Speaker Allan Bense added Allstate Floridian general counsel George Grawe, an advocate for making it easier for insurers to pay claims out of the policyholder-funded Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund.

Kevin McCarty, Office of Insurance Regulation director is a voting, but ex-officio, member.

Also on the board are:

• Andrew “Blair” Glenn, with Wachovia Mortgage Corp. in Jacksonville;

• Randy Dumm, a Florida State University associate professor on insurance risks;

• Richard Cain, representing State Farm, Florida’s largest property insurer;

• Jim Wurdeman, president of Poe Financial Group, a Tampa holding company for three small insurers, including Atlantic Preferred, the largest recipient of policies from Citizens; and

• Tony Grippa, a Leon County commissioner, former executive director of the Florida Workers’ Compensation Insur-ance Guarantee Association, who works for Brown & Brown Insurance and its Public Risk Insurance Agency in Tallahassee.