Downward Spiral: Florida Insurance Agent Charged with Embezzlement After Lawsuits

Florida authorities have arrested a well-known southwest Florida insurance agent, charging him with larceny and embezzlement of premiums.

Reid McDaniel, 33, who was named the honorary mayor of North Fort Myers last year but who also was facing a negligence lawsuit from a policyholder and a sexual assault complaint from an employee, was booked into jail Thursday by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. He had not posted bond by late Thursday and a hearing was not scheduled until next month, according to the sheriff’s office.

The alleged embezzlement amounts to more than $20,000 and less than $100,000, the arrest record shows.

The Florida Department of Financial Services said the charges stemmed from a complaint filed by a business owner, who said he had paid McDaniel Insurance Solutions more than $22,900 in premiums for two insurance policies in October. But the carriers canceled the policies for non-payment.

A telephone number for McDaniel was not in service Friday morning. NBC2 TV news in Fort Myers reported that McDaniel’s office space on Hancock Bridge Parkway was recently taken over by the business next to it, a roofing company, and the McDaniel Insurance Solutions sign out front was being dismantled.

McDaniel had been featured in several local TV news reports, speaking about Florida property insurance issues.

The Florida Department of Financial Services license page shows that McDaniel held a valid general lines/property and casualty agent’s license, a life and health agent license, and an adjuster’s license. He holds active appointments with 38 national and Florida-admitted property insurance carriers, including some of the largest companies in the industry.

McDaniel was reportedly well known in the community, even though he had been there only a few years. In early 2023, he was named “mayor” of North Fort Myers after he raised more than $8,500 for the local Chamber.

“I’m fortunate to partake in the event. It means somebody is going to champion the community, the Chamber, and bring some exposure as a leader in the community,” McDaniel told the North Fort Myers Neighbor news site last year.

Exposure soon followed, and trouble may have been brewing for some time. Last December, an elderly policyholder won a judgment of $198,543 against McDaniel in Lee County Circuit Court. The woman had filed suit after Hurricane Ian slammed the area in 2022. She charged that she had paid more than $2,200 in premiums for a mobile home policy with Lloyd’s of London, but McDaniel never secured the coverage.

When the home was decimated by the storm, the homeowner discovered she had no coverage.

Also in December, a sales agent hired at McDaniel’s agency in 2022 said in a lawsuit that he had repeatedly touched and groped her inappropriately, once after drinking “at least 4 whiskeys,” according to the lawsuit. That case is still pending.

NBC2 TV said that McDaniel had started an insurance agency in Indiana then sold it, moved to the Fort Myers area and started his agency there in 2021. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ license page shows that McDaniel is still licensed in Indiana as a non-resident producer. HIs agency in Greenwood, Indiana, still maintains a website but the phone number was not in service Friday.

McDaniel previously worked in the hotel business until 2019, according to his Linkedin page.

Topics Lawsuits Florida Agencies