Citizens Property Insurance, the largest insurer in the state, wants to get rid of some its policy holders. The company’s new president said Citizens needs to decrease its size and make sure those it insures are paying the real cost of their policy.
Barry Gilway, has been at the helm of the state-backed insurer for about a month. He said in that time, one of the biggest problems he’s seen is that Citizens needs to reduce the number of people it insures.
“There are opportunities for Citizens to move policies to alternative marketplaces and there are opportunities for Citizens customers to be moved to markets with companies in many cases with better coverage and without assessments," Gilway said.
Right now, if a storm hits causing Citizens to get more insurance claims than it has the money to cover, Floridians will get an assessment or extra tax on their other insurance policies, like car insurance, even if they don’t have a policy with Citizens. Gilway said Citizens needs to go back to being the insurer of last resort.
