St. Petersburg Shore Acres Resident Standing In Flooded Street Following Hurricane Idalia Impact (Photo By Cliff Gephart)

Florida-Backed Citizens Insurance Adds 5K Policies

St. Petersburg Shore Acres Resident Standing In Flooded Street Following Hurricane Idalia Impact (Photo By Cliff Gephart)
St. Petersburg Shore Acres Resident Standing In Flooded Street Following Hurricane Idalia Impact (Photo By Cliff Gephart)

The state’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. added about 5,000 policies last week, after seeing a dip the previous week. Citizens totaled 1.167 million policies as of Friday, up from 1.162 million policies a week earlier but down from 1.18 million policies two weeks earlier.

Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort, has become the state’s largest property insurer in recent years as private insurers dropped customers and raised rates because of financial problems.

Read: The 2024 Essential Guide To Hurricane Preparedness In Florida

Citizens reached as many as 1.412 million policies in fall 2023 before seeing reductions because of what is known as a “depopulation” program, which tries to move customers into the private market.

Under the program, state regulators approve private carriers to periodically take Citizens policies, which leads to decreases in Citizens policy counts some weeks.

The depopulation program stems, at least in part, from concerns about financial risks if the state gets hit by a major hurricane or multiple hurricanes.

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