In late September, 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall in Southwest Florida and traveled across the state. The storm brought with it significant storm surge that caused substantial flooding. The storm also was accompanied by high winds that caused damage.

Florida legislators have a crisis to tackle this week as they convene for a special session in an attempt to fix the state’s homeowners insurance problems.

In 2015, State Farm’s CEO earned $13.3 million overseeing America’s largest property insurance company. That same year at Tampa-based Heritage Insurance Holdings, one of numerous small Florida-based homeowners insurance companies, its CEO made $27.3 million -- despite overseeing 0.3% of the number of policies and accounts of State Farm.

Florida-based insurance companies have been going out of business the last few years or raising rates by double-digits. Industry groups and Gov. Ron DeSantis have blamed excessive litigation, and Republican legislators are poised this week to limit the incentives to sue insurers.

Florida has earned a reputation as a litigious state with some of the busiest courthouses in the nation, and a new report shows that the dollars flowing through the Sunshine State’s legal system dwarf other states by a wide margin.

Florida is one of 50 states and experiences 9% of all homeowner’s insurance claims, not unreasonable given our weather and geography. However, Florida has 79% of all homeowner’s property insurance litigation.

Hurricane Ian caused widespread flooding across Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina in October, resulting in losses estimated at between $41 billion and $70 billion. Among those losses were up to 358,000 vehicles damaged by floodwaters, according to Carfax.

With Florida property insurers trying to curb lawsuits, a Leon County circuit judge has refused to block a decision by Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier that could steer at least some disputes away from courtrooms.

Catastrophe risk modelling firm RMS has estimated that the private insurance and reinsurance market loss from recent hurricane Nicole will fall below $2 billion, with its best estimate being for a $1.6 billion industry loss.

Hurricane Ian has bulked up losses for three Floridian homeowners’ insurers, with one seeing its net loss for the quarter increase tenfold.

A new initiative launched by insurance and tort reform groups is taking aim at assignment of benefits agreements for windshield repairs.

On November 8, 2022, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida that Mount Vernon Fire Insurance Co. did not have a duty to defend Global Travel International Inc. in an arbitration between Global Travel and Qualpay Inc. despite Global Travel’s best efforts to bring the claim within coverage.

As Nicole threatens the Carolinas and Virginia on Friday with tornadoes and flooding, Floridians -- many still recovering from Hurricane Ian -- are picking up the pieces after this week’s storm killed at least four people and ripped apart buildings with its dangerous storm surge and powerful winds.

Seven beachside homes in Wilbur-by-the-Sea collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after Nicole struck Florida as a hurricane and ripped across the state, devouring a large chunk of the coastline along Central Florida beaches.

Kathryn Schweitzer worked recently in the yard in front of her small, yellow house in a North Port neighborhood where mildewing furniture, drywall and other personal belongings line the streets, the remains of destruction left behind by Hurricane Ian.
Schweitzer tries to shrug off the $8,000 she’s paid so far "just to get the walls back" in her flood-damaged home, because "if you can’t cry, you get to laugh."

We have written here before about the dreadful state of the property insurance market in Florida. A proof of concept was definitely not needed, but Hurricane Ian provided it anyhow. Insured losses from Ian have been estimated at between $28 billion and $47 billion; add uninsured losses and estimates balloon to $70 billion.