Hurricane Insurance For Home In Florida

Citizens Property Insurance president resigning

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. President Scott Wallace is leaving the Florida state-backed property insurer after serving more than five years as its leader.

Wallace, 59, turned in his resignation to Board Chairman Carlos Lacasa on Friday. Wallace will remain at Citizens into early April to assist with a transition to new leadership.

Lacasa credited Wallace for improvements in Citizens' service levels, risk transference initiatives, and professionalism toward its policyholders, agents, legislative leaders and stakeholders.

"Scott has led the company through a complex ramp up of the infrastructure needed for Citizens to provide the services and possess the claims payment ability that is so essential to our state's housing industry," Lacasa said Monday.

The company has grown rapidly in recent years despite legislative efforts to reduce its size and liabilities.

While Citizens was designed as a last-resort backup, the shrinking of the private market in recent years in hurricane-prone Florida has made it the largest home insurer in the state with roughly 1.5 million policies now in force.

Wallace, who previously served as a vice president at Citizens, was the second CEO of the insurer, which was created by the Legislature in 2002 to provide insurance to homeowners in high-risk areas and those unable to find coverage in the private market. He replaced Bob Ricker on an interim basis in November of 2006 and was named to the job permanently on Jan. 10, 2007 at a salary of $220,000.

The company's operations have come under increased scrutiny in recent months with Lacasa becoming the board chair and Gov. Rick Scott pushing for the company to be downsized if not sold outright to a private entity.

The not-for-profit public corporation has come in for criticism for paying many of its executives lucrative salaries, including Wallace whose salary jumped dramatically just two years after becoming the company's fulltime president. He was paid a base wage of $343,608 in 2009.

Florida Home Insurance

This week the financial crisis brought more shocking news. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler executives landed in Washigton on with their corporate jets seeking a share of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

In a shameless display of arrogance and entitlement, leaders of what used to be "best in class" companies begged for billions of dollars with their tin cups outstretched in front of the US Congress. Before the Big Three ever arrived in Washington, billions had already been committed to AIG and some of the largest financial institutions in the country.

During this financial meltdown we're seeing something we never expected to see in our lives - broken promises from major corporations and government institutions on an unprecedented scale. The day has arrived when large companies and large states like Florida can't raise the cash they need to meet their promises.

If you are a Florida home insurance consumer the financial crisis has put your biggest asset at risk - your Florida home.

Can you name a more sacred promise than the one a home insurance company makes to you when it takes your money and agrees to insure your home?

When you buy homeowners insurance in Florida the insurance company is promising you fast and fair payment of your claim. Florida insurance companies buy reinsurance to help them make good on this promise to you. Reinsurance is backup coverage that insurance companies buy to help protect themselves from big losses above certain levels.

The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund was formed as a way to help stabilize the Florida home insurance market after Hurricane Andrew caused billions in damage to Florida in 1992. By offering reinsurance at affordable rates, the fund helped to make homeowners insurance available and affordable for many years.

That all changed after the Florida hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 when Florida home insurance became overpriced and hard to find again.

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