Florida Homeowners Flock to ‘Last Resort’ Insurer

Florida’s state-owned “insurer of last resort” added more than 100,000 new policies between February and May 2021—a result, officials say, of an ongoing customer purge by private-market companies looking to shed policies that are most likely to generate costly claims. Citizens Property Insurance Corp., created to ensure Floridians can find insurance when no one else wants them, is becoming the only choice for customers whose prior insurers declined to renew their policies or hit them with premium increases steep enough that they became eligible to switch carriers.

The sharp policy growth, just as hurricane season gets underway, increases the risk that Citizens’ $6.4 billion surplus will not be able to cover all claims if a major catastrophe strikes South Florida or other heavily populated areas of the state.