Florida Regulators Want to Liquidate Aries Insurance
Florida regulators want property/casualty insurer Aries Insurance Co. of Miami be liquidated immediately. According to A.M. Best, Aries voluntarily went into receivership seven months ago and is contesting the state’s request, which will be considered at a Nov. 4 hearing.
A dispute with its reinsurance company, General Re, is at the heart of Aries’s, the company says. Reportedly, Aries contends that General Re owes it $30 million. The companies disagree on the calculation of the reinsurance payment rate.
In May, Aries went into receivership voluntarily in May. At that time it stopped writing new business but continued paying claims on existing business.
Although regulators considered the company to be in trouble at that time, they stopped short of regarding it as insolvent; now they believe it to be insolvent. The department has reportedly paid over $15 million in claims for Aries since it took over the company.
The company primarily wrote private-passenger nonstandard personal automobile insurance and commercial multiperil and liability coverages for small businesses in Florida.