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Home Front Economy
Florida Insurance Market Collapses
2006-08-01
In recent months, Florida's insurance crisis has mushroomed, spreading quickly from homeowners unable to cope with soaring rates to businesses facing policy cancellations, dwindling coverage and out-of-this-world costs if they can find insurance at all.

Hardest hit are small- and medium-size businesses, the backbone of South Florida's regional economy. They are faced with a tough choice: Raise prices and risk losing customers or absorb costs they hadn't anticipated. Some businesses are near default on loans because required insurance isn't available. Expansion plans are on hold or eliminated. Some real estate sales, both commercial and residential, are grinding to a halt.
The insurance industry is cancelling some types of policies everywhere in the US, and the big question remains: are we about to have a nationwide insurance collapse? The end result would almost have to be a massive reformation of tort law, and the elimination of most liability, or hundreds of thousands of businesses would have to shut their doors.
In possibly unrelated news, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) has just rebranded itself. Everyone give a big Rantburg welcome to.... the American Association for Justice.
pfthttttttt
Posted by:Anonymoose

#17  Watch out for the Dark Modi, its' comments are only revealed on a certain CGA monitors in the presence of a black-light.
Posted by: 6   2006-08-01 18:03  

#16  about the lawyer thingy, so solly SteveS... :-)
Posted by: RD   2006-08-01 17:58  

#15  Re: TW and # 6 post: thanks for the scorecard, now we can tell the players.
Posted by: USN, ret.   2006-08-01 14:16  

#14  Sgt Steve, SteveS, my apologies for the mistake. The Army of Steve is indeed overwhelming in its Stevishness, at least for us simple little suburban girls. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-08-01 12:16  

#13  SteveS is bright green

Actually, I'm kind of a pinkish-white and not to be confused with our esteemed moderators. It can be hard to tell the members of the AoS apart due to our common traits of manly good looks and insightful wit.
Posted by: SteveS   2006-08-01 11:31  

#12  Thanks Seafarious. Very interesting.
Posted by: Besoeker   2006-08-01 10:09  

#11  John Stossel: "Confessions of a Welfare Queen"
Posted by: Seafarious   2006-08-01 10:03  

#10  SteveS is bright green

That would be me, and one of the problems is the building boom in coastal areas took place during a period of lower hurricane activity. Now that we appear to be entering a active period, which experts estimate could last a decade or two, people will have to either rethink where they build or build more hurricane resistant housing.

Zoning and building codes need to be tightened, and perhaps insurance companies should insist on stronger structures before they will insure them.
Posted by: Steve   2006-08-01 09:40  

#9  Oh, and please add, those citizens who don't pay insurance but expect the taxpayer to pick up the bill. Why should they join any insurance pool to share the costs when the feds have shown time and time again, that cry loud enough and get the media to do sob stories and the payouts will roll.
Posted by: Glineling Slort8157   2006-08-01 09:22  

#8  Swamp Blondie nails it, if the state and insurance companies told people that build thier damn million dollar homes in Hurricane risk areas that your on your own when it comes to rebuilding. This crap would stop.
Posted by: djohn66   2006-08-01 07:18  

#7  Yup, it's bad all over the state, not just South Florida.

The insurance companies have jacked up the rates by close to 75% just this year alone. Good luck trying to even get a policy without going through the state insurance pool. It seemed like no one was even writing them when we were applying for our mortgage.

Yes, my house is in Florida, but the area I'm in hasn't suffered any major damage since the early 80's, at least (that's when my house was built, can't say what happened before then, naturally. Maybe it got leveled every year until my magical house was built, but I doubt it.) I even had the previous owners give me permission to talk to their insurance agent regarding their history of claims. They had one....for a broken window when someone tried to break in five years ago. I've never had any claims, not even on my auto policy, and still had to resort to the state pool for insurance.

What goes unsaid in this whole thing is that the insurance companies are pissed that they aren't getting the profit percentages they were hoping for from the state commission. I can't remember if it was Allsnake or Snake Farm, but I recall one of those two was including a 14% profit for themselves in their projected rates. They later reduced it to 6% after the state government gave them a "you gotta be farking kidding me" talk.

You can blame the lawyers all you want, but if they were willing to cut their expected profit percentage in half just to stay in business in Florida, that is indicative more of greed than anything else. If their underwriters are dumb enough to give the same rates to a beachside condo on a barrier island as they do to someone on higher ground, again, don't blame the lawyers.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie   2006-08-01 05:27  

#6  That lovely sky blue is Seafarious, RD. As a moderator, she got to choose her own colour. As I recall, Steve White is salmon (not pink!! If your screen shows him as pink, you need to reset something -- his is an entirely masculine salmon), SteveS is bright green, lotp is light green, Pappy is carrier grey. And Fred is comment-box yellow, while the poster looks like yellow highlighter. Or something like that; I'm a verbal, not a visual. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-08-01 03:31  

#5  ..or was that SEA SCORES!?

»:-)
Posted by: RD   2006-08-01 01:41  

#4  In possibly unrelated news, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) has just rebranded itself. Everyone give a big Rantburg welcome to.... the American Association for Justice.

LOL!Moose Scores!!

Heh what a heartwarming disclosure..

Due to popular demand, the ambulance chasers felt compelled to drop that filthy word "LAWYER" from their title!

»:-)

Posted by: RD   2006-08-01 01:38  

#3  Unfortunately, there are still far too many insurance companies whom will enter local markets-areas only iff State or Local Govts assume their bottom line, or most of it, vv payouts. PUBLIC TAXPAYERS FOOT THE COSTS/BILLS, NOTSOMUCH THE COMPANY(S).
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2006-08-01 00:54  

#2  ask the Silky Pony Breck Girl Former Ambulance chaser Dem VP Candidate why this is happening?
Posted by: Frank G   2006-08-01 00:25  

#1  Drive across an inlet to one of the barrier islands in Florida some time. You've got expensive homes and condos built on an island (often with ONE bridge to the mainland) ten feet above sea level in a hurricane zone.

The alternative is that these (voluntary) risks are subsidised by the rest of the US. Looks to me like market forces in action.
Posted by: DMFD   2006-08-01 00:22  

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