Return to last resort

Barry Gilway encountered several surprises in his first days on the job as the new president and CEO of state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp.: The stunning financial problems with sinkhole coverage, the quality and esprit de corps of executives in the company and, of course, Tropical Storm Debby.

However, he was well aware of what he calls the “one-thousand-pound alligator in the room” before he accepted the job: Citizens is way too big, far too exposed and undercapitalized and the problem boils down to having rates that are set competitively too low because of political meddling.

Citizens is too often the lowest price in the market, so it's understandable it would become the largest insurer — more than twice the size of the second largest insurer.