Two new insurers join Florida’s growing insurance market

Two new property and casualty insurance companies have been approved to do business in Florida, Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky announced Thursday. The firms are Stand Insurance Exchange, based in Tallahassee, and Praxis Reciprocal Exchange, based in Tampa. 

The two new companies bring the total to 17 new insurers to enter the market since the state passed legislative reforms aimed at stabilizing the market, Yaworsky says in a statement from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Together, all new insurance companies to enter the market under recent legislative reforms bring more than $574 million in policyholder surplus to support additional growth in the state’s property market, the release says. 

“Once again, I am thrilled to announce more new property and casualty insurers approved to do business in our state,” Yaworsky says in the statement. “We would not be where we are today if it was not for our historic legislative reforms. Our state’s insurance market is thriving—with 17 new companies since reforms and sustained rate requests from dozens of companies for rate decreases or 0% increases.”

Both companies are approved to write insurance for fire, homeowners multi-peril, allied lines, inland marine and other liabilities according to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Praxis Reciprocal Exchange is also approved to write insurance for boilers and machinery. 

The two new companies also plan to take out 25,000 policies each from Citizens Property Insurance Corp. by this December, helping the state-run insurer continue to shrink. Thanks to market reforms, Citizens Property Insurance now has less than 780,000 policies in force. That’s a significant decrease from the more than 1.4 million policies under Citizens in September 2023. 

Homeowners are already seeing the benefits of having more companies offering insurance coverage, the release says. Florida lawmakers enacted reforms in 2022 and 2023 that decreased financial incentives for policyholders, repair contractors, roofing companies and also plaintiff’s attorneys looking to file “frivolous lawsuits.”

Since January 2024, 30 homeowners companies have filed for a rate decrease and 45 companies have requested no increase, the Office of Insurance Regulation says. Florida Peninsula, one of the largest insurers in the state, recently requested the largest rate decrease in the company’s history – a statewide average decrease of 8.4% for homeowners’ premiums, including a 12% decrease for condo owners.