Florida is known for a lot of things, but these three top the list: beaches, sunshine, and seniors. Yes, seniors. This is the retirement state. Our seniors love this state because of its quality of life. That means you never have to shovel snow and can play golf year-round. In some places, the only car a senior will ever need is a golf cart. They also love this state because of the financial advantages, and the biggest one is that we do not have an income tax. Many retirees move here from states that are socking it to their paychecks no matter how small, and here, the money they earn is the money they keep.
However, in recent days, our seniors have been dealing with some other financial hardships other than income taxes. The main one that can be affected by state government policy is home insurance. Rates have been going through the roof (pun intended), and many of our members that we represent are being canceled. In fact, we had one coalition member tell us just a few weeks ago that they were not going to put in a legitimate claim because they were worried about being canceled entirely.
These moments provide an opportunity to both educate and encourage. First, for the education. In the last legislative session, our state leaders advanced a package of reforms that were designed to alleviate the insurance availability and affordability crisis. The reforms specifically addressed soft fraud and frivolous lawsuits.
For too long now, homeowners have been encouraged by third-party vendors to file claims for roof damage that were dubious at best. The word got out that if one needed a new roof, all a homeowner needed to do was work with a helpful vendor and file a claim regardless of whether they were confident they had damage from a storm or whether it was just normal wear and tear. Insurance companies in many cases were re-roofing homes rather than go through the process of litigation, and in the process, losing significant sums of capital that would be used to cover their policyholders. After a while, this became too much, and some companies opted to either stop writing policies or leave Florida altogether.
Another issue was frivolous lawsuits. They had skyrocketed, and if you don’t believe it, just check the stats. Easily available info with a basic Internet search will indicate that while Florida had less than 10 percent of the insurance claims nationally, Florida had over 70 percent of the insurance litigation nationally. That is because of a couple of significant loopholes related to how attorneys can charge their fees and what the basis is for alleging bad faith. These loopholes were closed in the 2023 legislative session, and with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ strong leadership, the appropriate bills were signed.
So what next? Rates are not going to just slump all in a few months. This is going to take time. But, there are already fresh companies seeking to enter the Florida market because of the reforms, and more competition brings pricing down every time. In the meantime, I would encourage all policyholders, senior or otherwise, to be patient and only file claims or litigation for things that are absolutely legitimate. Together, we can bring rates down and get everyone back to being focused on the great benefits of living in the “Free State of Florida.”
Based out of St. Augustine after many years in Tallahassee, Dr. Randy Ray is the chairman of Senior Consumers of America. He is also a longtime pastor and educator.
