After Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992, many of the best Florida home insurance companies began to leave the state. Many more exited Florida after the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005. Today the few name brand companies that remain for the most part don’t write any new business. What was once a prominent list of over 500 companies is now a short list of about 40 brand new start up companies that most people have never heard of.

With all of the chaos in the Florida home insurance market, what is the best way for you to find the best Florida home insurance companies?

For starters, it’s never been more important to have coverage with a private company – staying away from the bureaucracy of Citizens Property Insurance Company. While Florida’s state run insurance company of last resort, is charging below market rates and competing with the private market, there are plenty of storm clouds on the horizon.

Citizens has stated that it does not charge enough in its rates to cover the risks that it is taking. Consequently, the company must borrow even before hurricanes hit in order to have enough cash available to pay claims. It has enough cash to pay for smaller hurricanes but a major event would send Citizens into the bond markets looking to borrow to pay your claim. After major storms, if you are a Citizen policyholder you will be subject to special assessments that will be higher than those who have coverage in the private market. Last but not least, Citizens has not distinguished itself with fast and fair claim payments after major hurricanes.

Moving to the private market of Florida home insurance companies, you should look for companies that have most or all of the following:

Longevity – companies that have been around longer simply have more experience and better developed systems to write policies and process claims.

Financial Stability – high financial ratings, a large surplus to pay claims, and backup reinsurance from companies that also have high ratings.

Risk Diversification – a core base of policies that include an appropriate mix of newer, inland homes balanced out against older homes that are closer to the Florida coast. The company’s policy base should be geographically distributed across most of the counties in the state of Florida – not just concentrated in the South Florida coastal counties. Finally it is better to find a company that has expanded its policy base to other states in addition to Florida.

Customer Service – the company should have a reputation for excellent policyholder customer service along with a track record of fast and fair claims processing. In other words when you call them someone quickly answers the phone. If you have a billing question, they have the people skills and the systems to make things right. After a hurricane, it means that an adjuster will be scheduled quickly to come visit your home and assess the damages. And when he leaves, the company quickly values your damages and sends you a check.

Here’s what you can do to figure out if the Florida home insurance company you are considering can meet your expectations in these areas:

Check the websites maintained by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and find out when the company first started doing business in Florida. Try to find a company that started doing business before the 2004 hurricanes.

Get the company’s NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) code and use it to check its financial ratings with AM Best and Demotech. Find out how much surplus the company has to pay your claim. Don’t bother trying to assess the quality of the company’s reinsurance – the Best and Demotech ratings take that into consideration.

Ask your Florida insurance agent about each company’s policy diversification across Florida and into other states as well. Find out what you can about the type of risks the company is writing. As a general rule, home insurance companies in Florida that have taken out policies from Citizens have a higher risk policy base that must be offset against newer homes that are located in the interior counties of Florida. Finally, ask your agent about the company’s complaint history for the past couple of years. Rule out any company that has had a higher number of complaints filed against them relative to the amount of insurance premium they have written.

If you follow even half of these recommendations you’ll be doing a lot more than the average Florida insurance consumer to find the best home insurance company to meet your needs.

Consumers Look For Top Life Insurance Companies?

With today’s unstable financial situation, and of course, lots of news about large insurance companies, many people are more wary than they were a few years ago. Instead of responding ot the first ad they see on TV, they are looking into life insurance company ranks so they can be sure and find the right policy to cover their family.

What are some things that life insurers get ranked on?

Many people look for the largest company, and that may be done by finding a list of companies by premium, revenues, or assets. Others want to see financial ratings. A smaller company without massive revenue more have a better balance sheet. But are revenues, standard 3rd party financial ratings, or balance sheets the whole story?

I would contend that some smaller life insurance companies may provide friendly customer service without having huge amounts of revenues to compete with the largest companies. They may keep their premiums more affordable by skipping a huge national ad campaign. After all, does a super bowl advertisement really make a company better?

You may also find some highly rated companies, that are not the very top financially rated companies, that will provide very good service. Some insurers get their top A+ ratings by being very stingy when it comes time to make an insurance claim. Other insurers, with a more modest B+ rating could have a more liberal claims policy. Their slightly lower rating still shows stability, and it comes from that company being willing to pay out more cliams money to their clients.

Is An Insurer Friendly To An Applicant Like You?

Some companies may be very friendly to accepting applications from people like you. For instance, if you are diabetic, older 50, or have some other controlled health issue, you need to find an insurance company who will take your case! On the other hand, a younger and very healthy person would want to look for an insurer that offers the best discounts for their natural health and healthy lifestyle!

Life Insurance Plans are Local

You should understand that most insurance regulation is done at the state level. The state you live in, and even your zip code, will affect the types of policies that are sold, how they are sold, and even the premium you pay.

That is one reason why national life insurance company rankings may not tell you very much. You need to be able to compare plans and premiums where you live! Company ABC may have a great reputation with low consumer complaints and a liberal claims policy. But if they only do business in Florida, and you live in Alabama, that will not help you when you shop for insurance!

Find The Best Policy For You!

It is very important for you to find the very best company for your own needs by comparing many factors, and not just one factor. An online quote form can make this simple. You take a few minutes to fill out simple and basic information, click the submit button, and then relax. Top insurance companies will compete for your business!

Florida’s state run homeowners insurance company is Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. The company was formed as a home insurance company of last resort to help consumers who are unable to find coverage in the Florida private home insurance market. Floridians look to Citizens because their home has certain characteristics that make it undesirable to private companies. These factors can be the age of the home, its distance from the coast, the type of construction materials, and the roof type.

It’s a known fact that Citizens Property Insurance doesn’t charge enough in premiums for the risk that it takes. Instead, it depends on a mix of pre-event hurricane borrowing and imposing after the storm surcharges on all Florida home insurance policies if it doesn’t have the money it needs to pay claims.

This potentially lethal mix of high risk homes along with being under funded is one of the reasons that it’s always been a good idea to try to reduce the number of policies in Citizens Property Insurance. The smaller the number of policies that the company has, there is less chance that policyholders across Florida will have to pay large special assessments for many years after a major hurricane.

One of the ways that is done is by encouraging private home insurance companies to assume or “take out” policies currently covered by Citizens Property Insurance – hence the name “take out companies”. The take out process is also referred to as depopulation.

Attracting companies to assume or take policies out of Citizens Insurance Florida is good public policy.

Besides transferring more of Florida’s hurricane risk to the private sector, policyholders may also get better customer and claims service from a private sector company that doesn’t have anywhere near 1 million plus policyholders in Citizens. They also get an annual insurance premium that is usually less than what they were paying to Citizens. Finally, policyholders with private insurance companies are subject to smaller special assessments after major hurricanes.

Florida take out insurance companies get an immediate base of new insurance policyholders without the usual marketing and advertising expenses it takes to build a customer base. When these companies are formed, they have an easier time attracting capital because investors know that the take out companies will start earning premiums immediately after they start removing policies from Citizens.

Despite all the good that comes from reducing the number of Florida home insurance policies in Citizens Property Insurance, the take out program is not without its problems.

Policyholders are often concerned about the financial stability of the take out insurance companies. Many are start up companies and have a small surplus available to pay claims of $20 million or less. With Florida hurricane claims averaging $30,000 or more, even after a company’s reinsurance kicks in, there might not be enough money to pay all of the claims.

Many of the take out companies were formed after the 2004/2005 Florida hurricane seasons. Policyholders are concerned that if their home has a hurricane claim in 2009, that their home will be “on-the job” training for the customer service staff at these newly formed companies – inexperience that might result in evaluating and paying claims in a timely fashion.

The take out companies are very selective about the policies they take from Citizens – leaving the oldest, most poorly constructed coastal homes sitting right in the middle of hurricane alley still on the books of Citizens. This makes the Citizens book of business even more under funded than it was before the take outs.

Many of these take out companies milk the policy base they assume and never go on to write any new business beyond the policies they take out of Citizens. Companies that don’t diversify beyond the takeout policies in their initial portfolio are more susceptible to financial collapse after a major hurricane.

Last but not least, Florida insurance agents who originally wrote the policies that are being removed from Citizens might not want to become an agent with the new take out companies – even if it means they will lose the business. They simply might not want to add a new company to the mix of companies they already represent. Or they could have real concerns about the financial stability of the new take out company. The agent can’t stop consumers who want to benefit from a take out offer. However, an agent’s unwillingness to represent a particular company should at least cause a consumer to proceed with caution.

If you are a policyholder with Citizens Property Insurance and you receive a take out offer, here are the questions you should be asking your existing insurance agent – before you decide whether to move your Florida home insurance from Citizens to the new take out company:

How long has it been in business? Has it ever handled Florida hurricane claims before? If so, how many customers have filed complaints against that company for inadequate customer service.

How financially strong is the take out company? What are its financial ratings? How diversified is the company’s policy base across both Florida and other states? Are the policies being assumed by the take out company in North Central Florida, or in hurricane ground zero along the South Florida coast?

If your agent is not willing to become a new agent of one of the take out companies, that alone should be a warning sign to you. Your agent is risking the loss of your commission by taking a position like this. Find out from your agent why they don’t want their agency to accept an appointment with the new take out company. The answer your agent gives you, might tell you everything you need to know about whether you should accept the offer from the new take out company.

Last but not least, you should ask your agent to see if there are any other companies besides the take out companies that might be interested in covering your Florida home. The private home insurance market in Florida is always changing and there might be other companies now covering homes like yours that are a lot more stable.

Don’t forget, if you don’t bother to investigate these take out insurance companies, you will be the one living with an unpaid claim after the next Florida hurricane.