Florida home-grown homeowner carriers cut losses, but stay under water

Florida home-grown and locally-focused homeowner insurers continued to suffer losses through the Q1 off-season, with nearly 60% of such firms tracked by Gallagher Re suffering an underwriting loss during the period.

Data leaves the local crowd in a weak light as both the state insurer of last resort Citizens and the handful of national carriers with any mentionable presence in the state all padded coffers on increased underwriting profit well ahead of the pending storm season.

For the full set of insurers tracked in the Gallagher Re data set, net profits are up six times over the prior year period to $400 million. Underwriting results swung from a fractional loss to a $284.4 million gain in Q1.

But Florida’s state insurer of last resort Citizens accounted for the 60% of the state-wide improvement in underwriting gains.

Citizens increased its underwriting profit by 120% to $324.6 million as the state firm took 7.4 points from its combined ratio to 58.1%, nearly the best result across the Florida industry.

Citizens, flush with a 52% increase in policy counts as carriers turned insolvent in 2022, recorded a larger 74.6% increase in direct written premium to $966.6 million.

The group of 51 locals - the Florida specialists, said to deliver the majority of their business from the Sunshine state, halved their aggregate underwriting loss to $92.5 million while taking 7.4 points from their combined ratio to 90.9%.

Premium growth for the Florida specialists likewise lagged the larger field. Growth of 9.7% to $4.3 billion lagged the state-wide pace of 18.2%.

The nationwide carriers that brave the Florida market - Allstate (Castle Key), Nationwide, Travelers (First Floridian) and State Farm - increased their underwriting profit by 78% to $52.3 million while taking over seven points from their combined ratio to 77.9%.

The group posted outsized growth of 22.3% in direct written premium to a still-fractional $432.8 million slice of the market.

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