Some in the industry believe that the industry talks too much to itself and not enough to outsiders. Well, it could just be that it doesn’t do enough of either.
As Brian Kern reports in this issue, times are tough for the property insurance industry in Florida these days, particularly in Tallahassee.
“I feel like when talking to public officials these days that I really have the mark of Cain on my forehead — it really is a different day,” says Jeff Grady of the Florida Association of Insurance Agents.
“I remember going up there and having a sense of trust and professionalism and mutual respect. Now we’re tarnished as Satan. And some of these people are ‘our friends’ or real good friends to the agent back home, but they get up here in Tallahassee and they talk about us like we’re some far off industry that they can just put on a poster board and throw darts at us — and it’s OK. And every time they do it, their approval ratings go up.”
That’s a good explanation why last month’s Demotech/Insurance Journal Florida Private Sector Summit was needed. Something needed to be done to refocus on the private sector, even if it meant private insurers, agents, reinsurers and executives sharing information among themselves.
Some in the industry believe that the industry talks too much to itself and not enough to outsiders. Well, it could just be that it doesn’t do enough of either.
Thus at the summit agents were reminded to talk up the private market options beyond Citizens to their policyholders, if only for their own liability protection as advisors. Citizens may be clamoring for a Citizens’ policy but there are risks associated with that choice, not the least of which is future assessments.
Insurers were told what to expect in reinsurance in terms of availability and pricing and how to take advantage of new products like cat bonds.
Insurance executives learned how state mandates have burdened small, Florida-only insurers like Coral and some of the things an insurer in this position has to do to survive.
Underwriters were also given a glimpse into the thinking of the state’s courts on insurance claims issues — and what they saw was scary.
Everyone learned that the industry’s current ways of communicating are not working very well, at least with the policymakers, and what might be done to better promote the industry’s message and improve the dialogue.
Demotech’s Joseph Petrelli, who organized the summit, said he developed it “to provide insurance professionals with a meaningful analysis of options and expertise available to supplement the efforts of the public sector.”
Insurance Journal is pleased to make the private summit reports public in this issue (starting on page 70) and in online video interviews (www.insurancejournal.com) with some of the key presenters and Petrelli that further explore what the private sector is saying — and doing — about Florida’s unfortunate property predicament.
Topics Florida
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