Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Boosts Reinsurance

Florida’s state-backed property insurance company is shoring up its ability to pay claims to home and business owners should a major hurricane or series of storms hit the state this year.

For the first time in three years, the governing board of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. voted this week to spend a small percentage of its surplus to purchase roughly a half billion dollars of reinsurance in the private market.

Citizens’ solvency has been at question for several years. The company was created nearly a decade ago as the insurer of last resort, but instead grew to become the largest property insurer in Florida with over 1.3 million policyholders.

Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Scott’s office said it received the property insurance overhaul (SB 408) passed last week by the Legislature.