In an interview with CNBC, Gov. Ron DeSantis raised more concern about Citizens Property Insurance ahead of a potentially active storm season and amid a federal investigation into whether the state insurer has enough money in the bank for a future natural disaster.
“I received a letter from them, maybe about a month ago, telling me that they were depopulating,” Lori Lanni, a former Citizens Property Insurance customer, told WPTV back in January.
WPTV spoke with Lanni right after she got that letter from Citizens.
“I guess they over-insured,” she said. “So, I was one of the unlucky ones, and so they gave me a choice-to-choice between Slide and Florida Peninsula.”
Over the past year, Citizens has been dropping policies and pushing customers to private companies, as it did with Lanni, amid a federal investigation into whether the insurer has enough money in the bank to withstand future disasters.
This week, Gov. Ron DeSantis weighed in on the issue, telling CNBC that Citizens “is not solvent and we can’t have millions of people on that, because if a storm hits, it’s going to cause problems for the state.”
Robert Norberg, an insurance agent in Lantana, agreed with the governor.
“He’s on track. If we have a major hit in Florida, for example, and it takes out a lot of the Citizens policyholders, there would be an assessment,” Norberg said. “That’s the way that Citizens works.”
However, Norberg said with the policy-shedding program, he thinks for right now, Citizens has a good financial plan.
“Citizens is right now still at a net gain, which means they’re taking in more than they’re being able to put out by the assumption process,” Norberg said. “But the assumption process seems to be going very well with the latest round of assumptions.”
Citizens CEO Tim Cerio told WPTV’s Matt Sczesny in January that the company will always be able to pay claims with $4.5 billion in cash on hand, but he does want Citizens to “shrink back to that true insurer of last resort.”
“Consumers should not be asking for Citizens,” Norberg said. “They should be taking Citizens only when they have to.”