Another Florida property insurer declares insolvency
The liquidation of St. Johns Insurance will not only affect the Florida policyholders, but also in South Carolina.
Adding to Florida’s homeowners insurance woes, St. Johns Insurance Company, which is one of the larger property insurers in the state, has been declared insolvent and ordered liquidated per a posting on the Florida Department’s website. This makes it the third insolvency since mid-2021 and the fifth since 2019 in the state.
Coming on the heels of St. Johns’ February 15, 2022 announcement that they would cease writing in the state, the liquidation will not only affect the Florida policyholders, but also the company’s policyholders in South Carolina, where they also were licensed and wrote business. The guaranty funds in Florida and South Carolina are triggered under the liquidation order to provide coverage to the company’s policyholders up to the statutory limitations, and includes claims for unearned premium. The final date for filing claims in the liquidation proceedings has been set at February 23, 2023.
In Florida, the insurtech Slide has agreed to take on many of the St. Johns policies and those policies will begin moving to Slide this week. The Florida Department has set the cancellation date for those Florida policies moving to Slide under a court-approved transition plan for March 1, 2022. For those Florida policyholders not picked up by Slide and the affected South Carolina policyholders, they will have to seek new coverage as the policies will cancel 30 days post-liquidation.
Reports of large fourth Quarter 2021 losses from Universal Property & Casualty have added to the state’s woes. Universal is the state’s largest private insurer, with a combined loss ratio of 131%. While St. Johns is about a quarter of the size of Universal, it was the eighth largest insurer in the state with about 160,000 policies. In addition, six other insurers have recently stopped writing business and are non-renewing policies in the state.
The insolvency of St. Johns is another indicator of the meltdown of the Florida property insurance market that has been besieged by hurricane losses, fraudulent roofing claims, and excessive litigation primarily involving assignment of benefit claims. While the legislature has been trying to address the worsening situation, thus far it has not stemmed the losses facing the insurers in the state.
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