The state’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. added more than 5,000 policies last week, though Citizens officials say they expect to see a sharp drop in the policy count late this year.
Citizens had 1,234,270 policies as of Friday, up from 1,228,928 policies a week earlier and 1,223,778 policies two weeks earlier, according to data posted on its website.
Citizens President and CEO Tim Cerio said last week that the policy count is expected to drop below 1 million by the end of the year because of what is known as a “depopulation” program designed to move policies into the private market.
As part of that program, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation last week approved allowing private insurers to take more than 400,000 policies from Citizens in late October.
Based on past rounds of policy takeouts, the actual number of policies that will move from Citizens into the private market likely will be lower than the approved amounts. But the approvals would help shrink Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort but has become Florida’s largest property insurer in recent years as private carriers faced financial problems.
Citizens reached as many as 1.412 million policies in fall 2023 before seeing reductions because of the depopulation program.
With hurricane season having started on June 1, Citizens officials say they do not expect private carriers to take out policies during the summer and part of fall.
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