Atlantic Preferred to Drop 140,000 Florida Policyholders

A large insurance company plans to begin canceling coverage for 140,000 Florida homeowners this summer, less than two months after the start of hurricane season.

Atlantic Preferred Insurance Co. will begin dropping the policies July 13 as they come up for renewal to curb losses from hurricanes in 2004 and 2005.

“With the ongoing loss activity and the uncertainty of future losses, this is action that we have to take,” David Gough, Atlantic Preferred senior vice president said Wednesday. At this point, we don’t have a solution.”

Atlantic is a subsidiary of Tampa-based Poe Financial Group, which was once the third-largest homeowner insurer in the state. The company had hoped to raise enough money to prevent the need to cancel policies.

“The effort is ongoing and certainly very aggressive,” Gough said. “But we’re talking about millions of dollars here.”

The move comes just weeks after Poe announced that another subsidiary, Southern Family Insurance Co., would stop issuing or renewing policies in June.

At the end of 2005, Poe carried about 325,000 homeowner and condominium policies, Gough said. After the cancellations, it will have 145,000 policies in the state through Florida Preferred Insurance Co.

Last year was the costliest hurricane season on record, with storms causing $52.7 billion in insured losses, according to risk analysis firm ISO.

The Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1 and ends Nov. 30.

Topics Florida Hurricane