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2007 Industry Outlook
Insurance
Property insurance takes center stage.
Person to Watch
Alex Soto
President, InSource
Miami
Cuba native Soto, 57, is president of independent insurance agency InSource and the first Hispanic president of the Washington-based Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America.
Soto and his InSource partners want to increase business by 15% this year. At IIABA, Soto is focusing on stabilizing the Florida insurance market through advocating for congressional action. Soto is on Hispanic magazine's list of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the nation.
Workers' Comp
One unqualified success for the insurance industry in recent years has been the changes made to workers' comp in Florida in 2003. Rates are now 40% lower than before the changes.
In 2000, Florida often was said to have the highest rates in the nation, and one year ago, the state was ranked sixth. But the change in the law has led to four rate cuts, including a 15.7% reduction in 2006. Now the state ranks 17th, says Lori Lovgren, state relations executive for Boca Raton-based National Council on Compensation Insurance, which studies workers' comp trends and recommends rates.
The 2003 change capped attorney fees for workers and tightened standards for compensation, especially for the most expensive injury, permanent total disability.
Miami workers attorney Mark Zientz says rates have indeed come down, but only because benefits to injured workers have been cut. Zientz wants the state Supreme Court to take up a workers lawyers' suit to challenge the 2003 law. Workers, he says, got the "sticky end of the lollipop."
