5 Insurers That Are Leaving Florida — or Already Have

Things are getting a little cloudier for those trying to secure homeowners or auto insurance in the Sunshine State.

Recently, a couple of major insurance companies have made waves by announcing that they will not renew insurance policies in Florida.

However, they are not the first to pull back from offering coverage in Florida. Just over the past year or two, several other insurers have announced plans to pull out of the state.

In fact, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. — a nonprofit created as an insurer of last resort — is now the largest property insurer in Florida. Bloomberg reports that its insured properties have tripled since 2020, reaching nearly 1.4 million, and Citizens might add 300,000 insured properties to that number before 2023 is out.

As a wave of natural disasters and other factors force insurers to pull back from some high-risk areas — such as in California — here is a list of some key insurance companies withdrawing from Florida.

AAA

AAA recently announced that it will not renew auto and home insurance policies for some Florida residents. In a statement to CBS MoneyWatch, AAA said:

“Unfortunately, Florida’s insurance market has become challenging in recent years. Last year’s catastrophic hurricane season contributed to an unprecedented rise in reinsurance rates, making it more costly for insurance companies to operate.”

It is unclear how many customers will be impacted, although AAA told CBS MoneyWatch that only a “small percentage” of policyholders would feel the impact.

Farmers

Farmers Insurance no longer will write new policies in Florida. In addition, it will not renew auto, home and umbrella policies that are Farmers-branded.

In a statement, Farmers said:

“This business decision was necessary to effectively manage risk exposure.”

USA Today reports that the decision by Farmers Insurance will impact about 100,000 policies.

Farmers also recently announced that it will limit the number of new policies it writes in California due to a combination of high costs and wildfire risk.

Bankers

Bankers Insurance Group also left the Sunshine State. In a statement in the summer of 2022, the insurer said:

“This difficult decision was made to allow us to focus on our remaining lines and ensure they remain competitive and profitable. As an AM Best-rated carrier, we remain financially sound.”

At the time, WESH 2 News reported that Bankers also lamented that Florida lawmakers did not adequately address insurance-related fraud and litigation during a home insurance special session.

The TV station reported that about 25,000 policyholders were impacted by the decision.

Centauri

In the summer of 2022, Centauri Insurance — part of Applied Underwriters — suspended writing new personal lines and commercial business policies in Florida.

However, in a statement, the company opened the door to writing new Florida policies in the future:

“This is a temporary measure in direct response to a volatile market and targeted at ensuring continued fiscal responsibility to our agent partners and customers.”

Lexington

In March 2022, Lexington Insurance Co. — an AIG company — left Florida. At the time of the decision, Insurance Journal reported that about 8,000 “affluent” customers would be impacted.

Lexington specializes in insuring homes with replacement values of at least $1 million, according to Insurance Journal.