St. Petersburg insurer could take on 32,000 Citizens policies in the fall

Mangrove Property Insurance Co. could assume up to an additional 32,000 Citizens Property Insurance Corp. policies in the final quarter of this year, adding to the 50,000 it has already taken on.

The assumption of the latest batch of policies would happen in October, November and December.

The St. Petersburg company made the announcement Thursday, saying it was approved to assume about 81,000 Citizens policies this year.

Stephen Weinstein, Mangrove’s CEO, says in a statement that the company will underwrite “potential opportunities to reduce risk in Citizens in the fourth quarter consistent with our approach earlier this year, focusing on policies which meet our robust selection criteria, and for which we believe we can serve as a source of sustainable renewal capacity.”

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has approved what it calls “take-out companies” that qualify to assume policies from Citizens, the state-run insurance company.

The program has helped decrease the number of policies Citizens, which was created to be an insurer of last resort, has in force.

According to its website, as of June 30, Citizens had 779,552 policies in force. That’s down 35.75% from the 1.21 million it had in force at the same time last year.

Mangrove assumed 30,000 policies in April and 20,000 in June.