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Citizens Policy Count Dips Slightly
Citizens Property Insurance Corp. saw a slight decrease in its number of policies last week, at least temporarily stemming massive growth at the state’s insurer of last resort.
Citizens had 1,370,175 policies as of Friday, down from 1,371,324 policies a week earlier but up from 1,363,606 policies two weeks earlier, according to data on the Citizens website.
State regulators have approved a series of proposals by private insurers to assume policies from Citizens, including issuing orders May 31 that allowed Slide Insurance Co. to remove up to 25,000 policies and Loggerhead Reciprocal Interinsurance Exchange to remove up to 1,000 policies.
The orders indicated those assumptions would start “on or about” Aug. 22.
State leaders have long sought to move policies from Citizens into the private market, at least in part because of financial risks if Florida gets hit by a major hurricane or multiple hurricanes.
Citizens has seen a flood of new customers over the past three years as private insurers have shed policies and raised rates because of financial problems.
For example, Citizens had 499,056 policies on Aug. 31, 2020; 687,079 policies on Aug. 31, 2021; and 1,026,829 policies on Aug. 31, 2022, according to its website.
