ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — State insurance leaders say Florida is coming out of the insurance crisis it has been in for nearly a decade, with insurers stabilizing rates and more companies entering the Florida market. A sign of growth, according the Office of Insurance regulation, approving the 13th company just approved the enter the Florida market in April: Patriot Select Property and Casualty Insurance.
SITTING DOWN WITH THE CEO
Inside the small St. Pete office, ABC Action News Anchor Nadeen Yanes sat down with it's CEO, John Rollins.
"It feels relieving, because we've been raising capital trying to get into the Florida homeowners insurance market for about a year and a half now," he said.
Patriot Select is raising nearly $30 million in capital to show the state insurance regulators they have the funds to begin, but Rollins said it wasn't the easiest convincing investors, especially right before the 2025 hurricane season.
"These investors have picked up the paper and read the headlines about Florida was a mess. There was too much litigation in the claims environment. Had a lot of hurricanes hitting at the same time. Insurance companies, some of them, were not doing well, and we even had some insolvencies," Rollins said. "But again, once the 2024 season started to wind down, and people saw that, wow, these legislative reforms have really worked."
That led us to our next question: Why now?
"Number one, the legislature kind of finally did the right thing in restoring Florida's claims litigation environment to sort of like what it is in the 49 other states. The stabilization of the reinsurance market is probably point two," Rollins said. "I think point three is, you know, again, Florida is at the end of it all is a fast growing addressable homeowners insurance market. And investors are always chasing growth markets, whether that's in tech or something as stodgy as homeowners insurance. So did you put those three things together and investors thought it was the right time."
We got a rare look inside how an insurance company starts up in the State of Florida. Inside the small St. Pete office, there is a staff of about five, feverishly on the phones calling many of the 3,900 insurance agents in Florida, letting them know Patriot Select is now an option for homeowners.
Patriot Select also plans on building its base first through the Citizens Property Insurance take-out process.
"Florida does offer kind of a unique way to scale up an insurance business, or jump start an insurance business, by going to citizens and saying, I would like to take a block of policies out," Rollins added. "So we're hoping to scale our business with about 24,000 customers from citizens in June, and then work from there. Our long term business plan is definitely to be an open market writer."
That next Citizen's take-out round is set for June 17, and Patriot Select will be on thousands of letters as an option for homeowners.
"We have a small staff, but they're very, very dedicated, and we've got some partners that are working with us that, you know, we're leveraging their capabilities as well to try and get those agents on board. The money's in place, the reinsurance will be in place by June 1, the customer service will be there, and they will be able to rely on us this hurricane season," Rollins added.
INSURANCE COMMISSIONER'S RESPONSE
Here's a statement on Patriot Select's new upcoming from The Office of Insurance Regulation Press Secretary Shiloh Elliott.
“OIR’s approval of Patriot Select reentering the market shows continued progress toward stabilization for Florida’s insurance market, our team worked diligently for more than five years to supervise the successful, solvent runoff, which reflects the company, as well as OIR’s commitment to a responsible fulfillment of obligations to policyholders. New capital and successful oversight of legacy companies are allowing us to offer more reliable options for consumers statewide.”
NEW COMPANIES NOW WRITING POLICIES
In addition to Patriot Select, twelve additional companies have entered Florida’s market since the passage of legislative reforms.
Apex Star Reciprocal Exchange [floir.com]
Mangrove Property Insurance Company [floir.com]
ASI Select Insurance Corp. [floir.com]
Trident Reciprocal Exchange [floir.com]Ovation Home Insurance Exchange [floir.com]
Manatee Insurance Exchange [floir.com]
Condo Owners Reciprocal Exchange [floir.com]
Orange Insurance Exchange [floir.com]
Orion180 Select Insurance Company [floir.com]
Orion180 Insurance Company [floir.com]
Mainsail Insurance Company [floir.com]
Tailrow Insurance Exchange [floir.com]
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