Michael Carlson is president of Personal Insurance Federation of Florida
A trade association representing Florida insurers has launched an online hub that charts how legal reforms have transformed the state of the insurance market from “chaos and collapse” through a healthy “course correction.”
The Personal Insurance Federation of Florida (PIFF) said the launch of its Market Pulse resource hub would help consumers to understand the impacts of legal reforms passed by the state Legislature in 2019, 2022 and 2023. The reforms helped to end outdated legal frameworks and policies encouraging third-party litigation and legal maneuvers that led to insurer insolvencies, lawsuit abuse, soaring damages awards and higher insurance premium costs, according to PIFF.
Specifically, Market Pulse points to the entry of 17 new property and casualty insurers into the Florida market in the wake of legal reforms being implemented, a reduction of state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. policies to the lowest level in 14 years, rate reductions by major insurers and a reduction of litigated insurance claims of 25% from 2024 to 2025.
But not everyone agrees with the federation’s perspective showing improving trends in the state’s insurance market.
Michael DeLong, research and advocacy associate with the Consumer Federation of America, said Florida property insurance premiums remain elevated despite some recent rate cuts.
“... In Florida consumers continue to pay exorbitantly high prices for homeowners insurance,” DeLong told the Florida Record in an email. “Premiums are incredibly expensive and even unaffordable for lots of consumers. Rate decreases are good, but prices have gone up so much over the past few years that these declines are relatively small.”
In addition, he characterized the new companies entering the Florida market as small and undercapitalized.
“We are very concerned that consumers are being forced to rely on these unreliable companies, and this is happening at the same time that new laws have deprived consumers of a lot of their legal rights,” DeLong said. “It is now substantially more difficult for consumers to hold insurance companies accountable for misbehavior, unfair treatment and unfair delays or denials of claims.”
Others have criticized Florida insurers for allegedly transferring funds to affiliate groups and shareholders, creating the perception that they have paid out more than they have taken in during past years.
But PIFF argues that bad actors and legal abuses in the past distorted the insurance market, pushing up premium costs and making it harder for private insurers to compete.
“Florida’s property insurance market – one of the most complex in the world – has long been shaped by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, outdated legal frameworks and years of third-party litigation abuse that pushed the system toward crisis,” PIFF said. “Skyrocketing lawsuits, rising premiums and insurer insolvencies strained consumers and the state’s economy for more than a decade.”
PIFF has also pointed to research from the Texas-based Perryman Group that concluded property and casualty insurance costs in Florida have been reduced by about 14%, leading to $4.2 billion in expanding business activity and the creation of almost 30,000 jobs.
In addition, auto insurance rates have been declining by between 8% and 15% since 2023, according to PIFF, and Uber rates have fallen by 6% since March of last year due to lower insurance-related payouts.
“We’ve watched Florida’s property insurance market travel from chaos and collapse toward stabilization and recovery,” PIFF President Michael Carlson said in a prepared statement. “... (But) bad actors adapt quickly, and even one rollback of core reforms could reopen the floodgates. In the most complex property insurance market in the world, vigilance isn’t optional.”
