BlogTuesday, May 30 2023
Just as the plaintiffs’ law firm of Morgan & Morgan warned, the number of Florida lawsuits filed across the state has shattered previous records, topping 280,122 in April, the Florida Bar reported. That’s more than double the previous record set in May 2021 and is largely due to anticipation of the Legislature’s passage of a far-reaching tort reform bill that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law March 24, the Bar noted. As it became clear that House Bill 837 was about to pass in March, limiting one-way attorney fees and multipliers in almost all insurance and injury litigation, and slashing damages if the plaintiff is found to be 50% at fault, Morgan & Morgan and other claimants’ firms told insurance defense attorneys that they were getting ready to file tens of thousands of lawsuits in the days before the law took effect upon the governor’s signature. The firms were not exaggerating. And insurers and county clerks of court are now dealing with the impact. “Our primary concern is having adequate resources to process the high volume of cases and appropriately serve all parties and the judiciary,” Martin County Clerk of Courts Carolyn Timman told the Bar. Sarasota County Clerk Karen Rushing said the flood of new cases began around March 17, Rushing told the Bar’s news site. The total number of documents in the case filings was almost 3.6 million in March, a third more than the previous month. About 44% of the new cases were filed in Miami-Dade County and in Hillsborough County, home to Tampa. Some clerks have said they already are facing budget shortfalls, spiraling costs and understaffed offices – even before the tort wave hit, the Bar noted.
“At this moment we are doing what all lawyers should be doing – protecting the interests of our clients,” John Morgan, head of the Orlando-based plaintiffs firm, said in a statement in March. The tort-reform law clamped the attorney fee and other restrictions on suits filed after March 24. It does not apply retroactively in most cases, although some insurer lawyers have indicated they may challenge that in some circumstances. Sunday, May 14 2023
Even after lawmakers pulled the plug on litigation incentives that Florida property insurers have long blamed for rising homeowner rates, there’s more insurance sticker shock ahead, experts say. We can thank the increased frequency of catastrophic hurricanes and other costly weather events over the past few years, along with concerns that climate change will continue to send disasters our way, according to a recently released report. The report was prepared by ALIRT Insurance Research, a Connecticut-based firm that analyzes the financial strength of insurers on behalf of insurance distributors, insurers, institutional buyers and analysts. Released on May 2, the report paints a dire picture of Florida’s insurance market and warns of a “no-win situation” for Florida-focused homeowner insurers monitored by the firm. Reinsurance costs — which is coverage that insurers must buy to ensure they can cover claims after hurricanes and other catastrophes — could increase by up to 50% for Florida-based insurers before the June 1 start of hurricane season, the report said. Such a steep increase could force insurers to pay more for reinsurance than they collect in premiums, which is “an unsustainable business model over the long haul,” the report said. Meanwhile, companies that cannot secure or afford desired levels of reinsurance could be left vulnerable to storm claims that could drive them into insolvency, according to the firm. The pressures are evident in the shrinking pool of small domestic insurance companies that have formed to serve homeowners in the state since 1992’s Hurricane Andrew. A pool of companies monitored by ALIRT has shrunk from 42 companies in 2021 to 33 currently. Eight Florida-based companies have gone insolvent since 2021, the report notes. The 33 surviving companies exclude subsidiaries of large companies like Allstate, Farmers, Progressive, State Farm, Travelers and USAA that were created to insulate the parent companies by focusing solely on Florida risks. Thirty of the 33 surviving Florida-focused companies have financial strength scores well below the national average of companies that ALIRT reviews and are “problematic,” the report says. Nearly half of Florida-based homeowner insurers are on a “watch list” developed by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, said Mark Friedlander, communications director for the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute (III). “There is growing concern that several Florida residential insurers will be unable to complete their reinsurance programs for the 2023 hurricane season,” Friedlander said. “This could result in numerous financial rating downgrades and potential insolvencies.” The ALIRT report observed that by offering insurers less coverage at higher rates, “it appears that reinsurers, worn down by years of substandard earnings, have also finally cried, ‘Uncle.'” What’s to blame for rising costs?Of course, rising reinsurance costs will be passed directly to consumers. Friedlander says some companies could be forced to pay 70% more for their reinsurance this year. ALIRT’s report stated that the looming reinsurance cost spikes are only partly attributable to litigation abuses that were addressed by the Legislature last year and earlier this spring, after being blamed for five years of rising premiums and collective industry losses. While reducing lawsuits is “certainly a formidable step in the right direction, it occurs at a time when the Florida property insurance market faces another, perhaps equally existential challenge: obtaining the reinsurance protection so critical to the relatively small homeowners insurers that comprise the majority of this market,” it said. A bigger reason for the upcoming price hikes is that reinsurers are waking up to Florida’s vulnerability to natural catastrophe after several years of costly hurricanes and other weather events “that many now attribute to climate change,” the report said. Hurricane Ian, which caused an estimated $40 billion to $50 billion in damage after striking Southwest Florida last last September, is seen by the global reinsurance industry as the straw that broke the camel’s back after six years of global catastrophe losses, the report said. The reinsurance industry, backed by global financiers looking for safe investments, has been reeling lately, averaging about $100 billion a year in from global catastrophes, according to financial analysis firm Moody’s. Friedlander said III agrees that reinsurance rates for Florida-focused insurers are headed sharply higher but disagrees with ALIRT’s contention that litigation is a secondary factor this year. “Reinsurance renewals in other hurricane-prone states are expected to run much lower on average than Florida because those states don’t see the litigation abuse experienced here,” he said by email. Despite restrictions enacted last year largely preventing third-party claims assignments and supplemental collection of legal fees in claims disputes, those enticements remain in place for policies active when the law took effect on Jan. 1. That means lawsuits over claims made before the reforms took effect can still be filed for years to come, delaying the reforms’ anticipated cost savings for insurers and any rate stabilization promised to homeowners. Yet, Locke Burt, president and CEO of Security First Insurance Co., says the reforms have reduced the number of lawsuits filed against his company by 57% over the first four months of this year. He said, though, that the upcoming reinsurance cost increases will wipe out those savings. For every $1 of insurance premiums that homeowners pay, about 20 cents goes to litigation claims, Burt said. “We think that’s going to be cut in half” in the near future, he said. Forty cents of the $1 goes to reinsurance and those costs are expected to increase for his company 30% to 40%, he said. Reinsurance cost hikes passed to customersAccording to ALIRT, Florida-focused companies paid reinsurers an average of 49 cents for every dollar of premium collected in 2022. What does that mean for policyholders? Policyholders will generally see premium increases of roughly half of the percentage increases that insurers will see for reinsurance, says Paul Handerhan, president of Federal Association for Insurance Reform, a consumer watchdog organization based in Fort Lauderdale. That means that if an insurer must pay 50% more for reinsurance this year, premium increases for policyholders will run about 25% on average, he said. Handerhan expects all but a couple insurance companies will secure their needed reinsurance coverage for the upcoming hurricane season, but the increases will prove costly for policyholders. He concurs that reinsurers are awakening to the increased costs of damaging storms. “There’s no doubt that climate change, including sea level rise, hurricanes and storms like the one that flooded much of Fort Lauderdale last month, are increasing in frequency and severity,” he said. Were we paying too little?ALIRT also suggests that Florida homeowners have been enjoying artificially low insurance rates — or in insurance-speak, “suppression of actuarily sound” rates — for the past three decades. The combination of suppressed rates and increasingly costly storms, the report said, “has proven a recipe for chronic (re)insurance losses.” That’s because insurers rely on reinsurance coverage to pay claims after they spend a prescribed percentage of their surplus. Many companies, particularly startups, charged low premiums to compete for customers in the 10 hurricane-free years between 2006 and 2015, Handerhan said. As a result, many accumulated less surplus and are now weaker financially than if they had charged rates reflecting their actual cost of risk, Handerhan said. If reinsurance costs rise year after year for a company that has seen its surplus erode for six or seven years, eventually that surplus is eroded to the point that the company can never catch up, he said. Handerhan expects reinsurance rates to stabilize within two to three years, as last year’s legal reforms gradually reduce litigation costs, and as insurers are forced to cut costs by improving claims handling practices and shedding risky policies. That means state-owned Citizens Property Insurance Corp. will still have to be the insurer of last resort for owners of older homes most vulnerable to damage from severe weather, he said. But eventually, premiums should stabilize for homeowners fortunate enough to be able to buy private-market insurance, he said. ALIRT’s report warns that much depends on the weather. About the only way out of trouble for Florida’s property insurance industry as it waits for the legal reforms to reduce losses is to “keep their fingers crossed on the catastrophe front,” the report said, adding that’s “never a great strategy.” Friday, May 05 2023
By the end of March 2023, National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims paid after Hurricane Ian had surpassed $3.4 billion, with more than 46,000 NFIP flood insurance claims received. As we wrote previously, by mid-January 2023, the NFIP had paid $2.2 billion in claims for Hurricane Ian, the powerful Category 5 Atlantic hurricane which battered Florida in September 2022, becoming one of the costliest re/insured loss events in history at an estimated $55 billion. The January 17th figure reported by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) represented an almost 28% increase from the January 9th figure. In early March, the total had risen by more than 45% to $3.2 billion, rising by a further 6% to the more $3.4 billion figure as of the end of that month. By now, it’s likely that the total has risen even higher, but given that it’s now been seven months since the hurricane it’s likely that the pace of claims would have slowed somewhat. Of course, FEMA had reinsurance protection in place for the NFIP in 2022 – securing $1.064 billion of flood protection for a total premium of $171.9 million at the January 1st, 2022, reinsurance renewals. The 2022 program covered portions of NFIP losses above $4 billion arising from a single flood event, structured to cover 4.163% of losses between $4 billion and $6 billion; 26.565% of losses between $6 billion and $8 billion; and 22.453% of losses between $8 billion and $10 billion. So, with NFIP claims paid now at more than $3.4 billion, the attachment point is approaching, although it’s still someway off and, as noted above, the pace of claims will have slowed given the time that has passed since Hurricane Ian’s impacts. Back in December, FEMA’s updated estimate for NFIP claims arising from Hurricane Ian stood at between $3.7 billion and $5.2 billion. FEMA also secures reinsurance protection for the NFIP from the capital markets in the form of catastrophe bonds via its FloodSmart Re program. Of these, the lowest down that are potentially exposed to Ian would only attach at $5.2 billion of losses, so at this stage it appears as though the cat bonds are reasonably safe from loss, barring a late and significant surge in claims, which seems unlikely now Monday, May 01 2023
The fact trial lawyers have dumped tens of thousands of lawsuits into the Florida courts in March, just before the state’s tort reform legislative overhaul kicked in, adds another threat to the already challenged Florida insurance market, the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) has said. That deluge of cases was 126.9% higher than the previous record in May of 2021, the Florida Bar said. Triple-I explains, “These lawyers see the writing on the wall. The days of outsized legal fees from filing frivolous claims against insurance providers are over.” But adds, “This last-ditch effort by trial lawyers will likely further delay consumers from benefiting from the new reforms as the load of cases slowly makes its way through Florida’s court system.” In fact, the Triple-I predicts that this deluge of Florida lawsuits could “create a historic backlog” and as a result this could ensure that “insurers shell out billions of dollars in legal fees for the foreseeable future.” This would “further threaten Florida’s weakened insurance market,” the Triple-I believes, a market that currently still sees as many as 24 insurers facing the risk of insolvency. “This will make it even harder for Florida’s insurance market to stabilize, which was the intent of the reforms in the first place,” the organisation explains. A destabilised Florida insurance market can pressure already-weakened insurers, drive additional costs through the system, while also resulting in further reinsurance pressures as the perception of the health of Florida’s primary insurers may take longer to improve. It’s expected that many of these legal cases would normally have been denied, or settled pre lawsuit, but given the tort reform deadline lawyers have sought to file cases to protect their clients. One of the Senate sponsor of the tort reform law, Palm Coast Republican Travis Hutson, commented, “I think it proves to us that the system is kind of broken and we need to reform it. You’re seeing all these lawsuits being filed now and it’s going to shock the system for a little bit, but eventually it will work itself out and we’ll be able to move forward under the new provisions.” There’s no visibility of how many cases were filed that are relevant to Florida’s property insurance marketplace. But we’re told that the industry should expect that cases related to property carriers will be among them and there may have been a flurry of lawsuits filed in relation to last year’s hurricane Ian as well. Time will tell how those work through the system and whether this legal backlog creates any challenges through the rest of 2023. Tuesday, April 25 2023
The fact trial lawyers have dumped tens of thousands of lawsuits into the Florida courts in March, just before the state’s tort reform legislative overhaul kicked in, adds another threat to the already challenged Florida insurance market, the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) has said. That deluge of cases was 126.9% higher than the previous record in May of 2021, the Florida Bar said. Triple-I explains, “These lawyers see the writing on the wall. The days of outsized legal fees from filing frivolous claims against insurance providers are over.” But adds, “This last-ditch effort by trial lawyers will likely further delay consumers from benefiting from the new reforms as the load of cases slowly makes its way through Florida’s court system.” In fact, the Triple-I predicts that this deluge of Florida lawsuits could “create a historic backlog” and as a result this could ensure that “insurers shell out billions of dollars in legal fees for the foreseeable future.” This would “further threaten Florida’s weakened insurance market,” the Triple-I believes, a market that currently still sees as many as 24 insurers facing the risk of insolvency. “This will make it even harder for Florida’s insurance market to stabilize, which was the intent of the reforms in the first place,” the organisation explains. A destabilised Florida insurance market can pressure already-weakened insurers, drive additional costs through the system, while also resulting in further reinsurance pressures as the perception of the health of Florida’s primary insurers may take longer to improve. It’s expected that many of these legal cases would normally have been denied, or settled pre lawsuit, but given the tort reform deadline lawyers have sought to file cases to protect their clients. One of the Senate sponsor of the tort reform law, Palm Coast Republican Travis Hutson, commented, “I think it proves to us that the system is kind of broken and we need to reform it. You’re seeing all these lawsuits being filed now and it’s going to shock the system for a little bit, but eventually it will work itself out and we’ll be able to move forward under the new provisions.” There’s no visibility of how many cases were filed that are relevant to Florida’s property insurance marketplace. But we’re told that the industry should expect that cases related to property carriers will be among them and there may have been a flurry of lawsuits filed in relation to last year’s hurricane Ian as well. Time will tell how those work through the system and whether this legal backlog creates any challenges through the rest of 2023. Tuesday, April 18 2023
TALLAHASSEE — State insurance regulators last week signed off on a plan that will lead to policyholders throughout Florida paying extra on their bills because of property-insurer insolvencies. Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky issued an order that approved a request by the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association to collect a 1% emergency “assessment” to cover costs of claims. Insurers will collect the assessments from policyholders starting in October and send the money to the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association, according to the order. The assessment will come as property-insurance policyholders throughout the state face soaring premiums. Assessments also will be collected on a variety of types of other insurance policies, though they will not apply to auto insurance. The Florida Insurance Guaranty Association, or FIGA, is a nonprofit agency created by the state to handle claims when insurers become insolvent. It has issued a series of assessments in recent years amid financial problems in the property-insurance industry. Seven property insurers have been deemed insolvent since early 2022. FIGA’s board on March 31 approved seeking the emergency assessment after the insolvency of United Property & Casualty Insurance Co. That insolvency, which led to the appointment of a receiver for the company in February, is expected to lead to FIGA handling hundreds of millions of dollars in claims. Under the plan approved last week by regulators, FIGA is borrowing $150 million in short-term financing to help pay claims. It then will issue up to $750 million in revenue bonds to pay off the short-term financing and to pay remaining claims. Money from the assessments will be used to pay off the bonds. The FIGA website said the 1% assessment will continue until the “bonds have been paid in full.” “The emergency assessment is necessary to secure funds for the payment of covered claims, to pay the reasonable costs to administer such claims, including claims resulting from insurance companies that have become insolvent or may become insolvent as a result of losses incurred due to hurricanes, including but not limited to Hurricanes Irma, Michael and Ian, and to secure bonds issued to generate revenues to pay claims,” FIGA Executive Director Corey Neal wrote in an April 4 letter to Yaworsky. FIGA also collected a 0.7% assessment in 2022. It began collecting an additional 1.3% assessment on July 1, 2022, that is scheduled to end June 30, according to information on the agency’s website. In addition, policyholders are being hit this year with another 0.7% assessment that will end Dec. 31 Private property insurers have dropped hundreds of thousands of policies and sought large increases during the past two years because of financial problems. Along with resulting in FIGA assessments, the problems in the industry have led to explosive growth at the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Many state leaders have long warned that if Citizens does not have enough money to pay claims, it could have to collect assessments on policyholders throughout the state. Citizens, which had 1.248 million policies as of April 7, did not need to turn to assessments after last year’s Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole. Thursday, March 30 2023
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill (HB) 837, Civil Remedies, to decrease frivolous lawsuits and prevent predatory practices of trial attorneys who prey on hardworking Floridians. This bill modifies the bad faith framework, eliminates one way attorney’s fees and fee multipliers and ensures that Floridians can’t be held liable for damages if the person suing is more at fault. Additionally, this bill expands immunity for property owners defending against a criminal who is injured on their property while providing uniform standards for juries in calculating medical damages and reducing the statute of limitations for general negligence cases from four years to two years. The Governor proposed this legislation in February before the start of the 2023 Legislative Session. “Florida has been considered a judicial hellhole for far too long and we are desperately in need of legal reform that brings us more in line with the rest of the country,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “I am proud to sign this legislation to protect Floridians, safeguard our economy and attract more investment in our state.” “When a horrible accident or incident occurs and people suffer a loss, they should be compensated quickly and fairly,” said Senate President Kathleen Passidomo. “The vast majority of attorneys work very hard to provide sound legal representation for Floridians in these difficult circumstances. Unfortunately, there are a few bad actors who are in the business to draw out civil cases as long as possible, collecting more and more fees from insurance companies. Litigation drives up the basic costs of goods and services for everyone across all areas of industry and commerce. Under the leadership of Governor DeSantis, we have taken many steps to help keep Florida affordable for growing families and seniors. This legislation further those efforts striking the right balance and protect the rights of Floridians who suffer a loss, while at the same time safeguarding everyone else against the hidden costs of prolonged litigation.” “Thank you Governor DeSantis for signing transformational legislation to end lawsuit abuse,” said House Speaker Paul Renner. “This legislation prevents frivolous lawsuits and allows good claims to move forward. These reforms make our economy more competitive and Florida more affordable for our citizens and businesses. Thank you to House sponsors Tommy Gregory and Tom Fabricio for your leadership on this bill.” “For too long Florida families have shouldered the hidden cost of lawsuit abuse as Florida’s litigation environment has cost jobs and driven up the cost of goods and services,” said Senator Travis Hutson. “This legislation contains the most meaningful and robust reforms in decades, making numerous changes to Florida’s arduous civil system that will provide transparency to jurors, shorten the time people toil away in civil court, and eliminate unfair practices that bad actors have abused. This bill protects the rights of Floridians who suffer a loss, while providing a solutions to cut down on frivolous lawsuits and prevent predatory practices that prey on hardworking Floridians.” “The reforms Governor DeSantis signed into law returns Florida’s tort system to fundamental American judicial principles that the most responsible pay for the damages they caused and trusts juries to fairly decide cases,” said Representative Tommy Gregory. “This legislation brings balance to the system and protects the legal rights of Floridians to access to the courts while reducing the number of frivolous lawsuits,” said Representative Tom Fabricio. “Thank you Governor DeSantis for your support on this good bill.” This bill modifies the bad faith framework to clarify that negligence alone does not demonstrate bad faith and to require a claimant to act in good faith regarding furnishing information and attempting to settle the insurance claim. Additionally, the bill allows an insurer to limit their bad faith liability when there are multiple claimants in a single action by paying the total policy amount before negotiations for a settlement begin. Additionally, this legislation makes changes to Florida’s comparative negligence system so that a plaintiff who is more at fault for his or her own injuries than the defendant may not generally recover damages from the defendant. Furthermore, the bill expands immunity for property owners who are defending themselves from a lawsuit against a criminal actor who was injured on the property and requires a judge or jury to consider the fault of all persons who contributed to an injury. The bill also adopts the federal standard of eliminating attorney’s fee multipliers and provides that one way attorney fee provision can only be applied in limited situations. By doing so, the bill disincentivizes frivolous lawsuits and prolonged litigation to increase the profit margins of activist attorneys abusing the system. This new legislation also provides uniform standards to assist juries in calculating the accurate value of medical damages in wrongful death or personal injury actions. The bill also reduces the statute of limitations for general negligence cases from 4 years to 2 years. Thursday, January 26 2023
The state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp added more than 3,000 policies the week of Jan. 16 as it neared a total of 1.15 million policies, according to data posted on its website. Citizens had 1,148,629 policies, up from 1,145,178 a week earlier. Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort, has seen explosive growth during the past two years as private insurers have dropped customers and raised rates because of financial problems. By comparison, Citizens had 759,305 policies at the end of 2021 and 542,739 policies at the end of 2020. Tuesday, January 24 2023
Citizens is updating their eligibility rules to comply with Senate Bill 2-A, passed by Florida legislators during the December 2022 Special Session. This communication covers new business only. We will send information about renewal at a later date. Coverage Requirements
If the above limits are not available from the NFIP, Citizens will accept the maximum coverage amount for which the insured is eligible. Maximum NFIP limits:
Tuesday, December 27 2022
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping property insurance bill on Friday. How much and when it will work to stabilize the stormy market are among the questions being asked. One of the key goals of the legislation is to keep the claims process from ending up being settled in courtrooms, a problem that DeSantis said drives up legal costs for insurers. “This bill reins in the incentive to litigate,” DeSantis said before signing the bill in Fort Myers, an area devastated by Hurricane Ian in September. “This is going to make a huge, huge difference.” Florida has struggled to keep the insurance market healthy since 1992 when Hurricane Andrew flattened Homestead, wiped out some insurance carriers and left many remaining companies fearful to write or renew policies in Florida. Risks for carriers have also been growing as climate change increases the strength of hurricanes and the intensity of rainstorms. But beyond being prone to hurricanes, Florida needs to reduce legal costs for insurers, DeSantis said. “Florida’s property insurance market was very good for lawyers. Very good. It’s made a lot of people very, very rich. But the question is, is that in your best interest to have a situation like that? And I don’t think it is,” DeSantis said. The Bill Signed by Governor The draft of the measure was revealed Friday evening, Dec. 9. By Tuesday, Dec. 13, the full Senate voted mostly along party lines, 27-13, to endorse it, with no amendments. On Wednesday, the House approved it 84-33. Most provisions will take effect immediately upon the signing of the bill into law.Lawmakers and insurance groups cautioned that it could still be another two years before remedial effects of the legislation are fully realized. The new law will create a $1 billion reinsurance fund, put disincentives in place to prevent frivolous lawsuits and force some customers to leave a state-created insurer of last resort, Citizens Property insurance, for a private insurer, even if the policy costs more. It will also set more stringent deadlines throughout the claims process to try to insure homeowners don’t face coverage delays. Mimi Bright of Parkland said she isn’t expecting relief for policyholders any time soon, but she’s glad that lawmakers are addressing the subject.
“So much for protecting the consumer, right?” Bright said. Average annual premiums have risen to more than $4,200 in Florida, which is triple the national average. About 12% of homeowners in the state don’t have property insurance, compared to the national average of 5%, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a research organization funded by the insurance industry. Insurance Losses The insurance industry has seen two straight years of net underwriting losses exceeding $1 billion in Florida. Six insurers have gone insolvent this year, while others are leaving the state. But Democrats opposed the bill, saying it doesn’t do anything to help stop huge rate increases and cancellations that homeowners are struggling with. The legislation will remove “one-way” attorney fees for property insurance, which require property insurers to pay the attorney fees of policyholders who successfully sue over claims, while shielding policyholders from paying insurers’ attorney fees when they lose. It will also eliminate the state’s assignment of benefits laws, in which property owners sign over their claims to contractors who then handle proceedings with insurance companies. The bill would force people with Citizens policies to pay for flood insurance and require moves to private insurers if they offer a policy up to 20% more expensive than Citizens. Citizens recently topped 1 million policyholders for the first time in a decade. In a plus for consumers, it will also speed up deadlines for insurance companies to respond to and act on claims. To help at a time when companies are slammed with claims, the law allows insurers to begin the claims process through video, photos and teleconferences rather than sending an agent to every damaged property. The new law comes as Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier steps down from his position. DeSantis said Friday the position has already been posted. DeSantis also signed a bill to provide property tax rebates to people whose homes were left uninhabitable by Ian. The bill also provides money for recovery. |
