- March 28, 2024
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TAMPA — The former head of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. who jumped to the private sector nearly three years ago in Tampa, is retiring.
Scott Wallace will step down as president of Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Co., a division of HCI Group Inc. Wallace will retire in May after 37 years in the insurance industry, according to a release.
Paresh Patel, HCI Group's chairman and CEO, will retake the reigns of the company he was president of in the two years leading up to Wallace's appointment.
“We thank Scott for his important contributions to HCI Group, and leading Homeowners Choice through an extraordinary period of growth and profitability,” says Patel, in a release. “Scott leaves behind a strong, well-prepared management team.”
HCI, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange as HCI, reported a $48.1 million profit in the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, or $4.48 per share, on revenue of $274.1 million. That was down from a $49.9 million, or $4.46 per share, profit the year before, on revenue of $245.7 million.
Under Wallace, the state-run Citizens insurance group struggled as rates rose along with frustration from policyholders, who could not figure out why it remained so expensive to stay with the “insurer of last resort” despite the lack of hurricane damage to the state in recent years.
Soon after Wallace's departure, Citizens began offering incentives for private companies to buy out some of the policies Citizens held. Last December, Wallace himself accepted 36,000 policies on behalf of HCI -- 30,000 of them wind policies. Affected customers had 30 days to opt out of HCI's acquisition.