RLI Insurance Wants 16% Rate Hike in Florida on Umbrella, Filing Shows
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 rate filing with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.
More than 57,000 policies may be affected.
The increase is on top of a 24% increase that was approved and took effect in January, which means that new or renewal policies with a start date after September will see both increases, the RLI administrator for Florida, Charlie Hampton, said in a Florida Association of Insurance Agents’ blog post this week.
“I’m sure they (agents) won’t love it but they will understand in this market,” Hampton said in an email Friday.
RLI also was approved for a 13.8% increase in June 2023.
The company, which began as a contact-lens insurer in 1965, has continued its profitability in recent years. RLI’s second-quarter 2024 earnings report shows almost $82 million in net income, up slightly from Q2 2023. Its combined ratio, a measure of profitability, stood at a startlingly low 81.5, a slight improvement over the previous year and far below the industry average. The Illinois-based carrier has been licensed in Florida since 1975.
RLI’s stock price last week and this week rose to an all-time high of $154 per share, Investing.com and Yahoo!Finance reported.
Others in the primary property insurance market have filed for double-digit increases. These include People’s Trust Insurance, which has requested a 14.8% increase on dwelling fire policies; First Protective Insurance, which has asked for a 14.7% increase on homeowners; and Cypress Property & Casualty Insurance, which was approved for an 18.7% hike on homeowners policies. Citizens Property Insurance Corp. also has requested a 14% average rate increase, the maximum allowed by the corporation’s statutory glide path.
So, it’s not certain that RLI’s latest filing will be approved. At a rate hearing in June, OIR officials repeatedly grilled a People’s Trust executive over the company’s HO rate increase, coming on the heels of another increase in 2023, Lisa Miller & Associates has reported.
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