The Foremost group, a mobile home specialty insurer operating within the Farmers Insurance Group, is the latest insurer to be called before the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation to defend its proposed rate increases.

According to the insurance department, Foremost and its affiliates, including American Federation Insurance Co., Foremost Property and Casualty Insurance Co., Foremost Insurance Co. and Foremost Signature Insurance Co., requested rate increases of as much as 72.9 percent for properties in Polk County. The insurer, the department said, have over 20,000 policyholders in the county, comprising 68 percent of the market.

However, a spokesman for Los Angeles-based Farmers, Mark Toohey, disputed those figures, saying the company's rate requests "were not accurately described by the department" in its announcement of the hearing.