Jul 3, 2024
American Integrity Insurance is cutting rates for tens of thousands of Florida homeowners, marking the second Tampa carrier to lower costs this year.
American Integrity, the sixth-largest insurer in Florida, will reduce rates by 6.9% for approximately 55,000 policyholders, according to President and CEO Bob Ritchie.
The insurer’s remaining 215,000 policyholders will be spared from cost increases and keep their same rates when American Integrity submits its annual rate filing later this month. Florida accounts for the lion’s share of its business at approximately 264,700 in policies in force.
“Absent significant hurricane activity, we anticipate that the trajectory of rate increases will continue to flatten,” COO Jon Ritchie said in a statement.
The rate reduction is a “direct result” of a legislative overhaul in late 2022 and early 2023, the company said.
Ritchie said those reforms have “begun to dismantle the costly ‘tort tax’ that consumers have shouldered for years.”
“The enactment of SB 2A in December 2022 marked a turning point by eliminating one-way attorney fees and the assignment of benefits. These crucial changes have curtailed the predatory practices of ‘billboard attorneys’ who exploited regulatory loopholes for personal gain,” according to the statement.
Tampa-based Heritage Insurance (NYSE: HRTG) CEO Ernie Garateix also cited the reforms when announcing a 3.3% rate cut on new and renewed policies beginning in August. Heritage — the state’s 13th-largest property insurer — had aggressively raised rates and downsized its business in Florida by nearly one-third during the prior three years. This state accounts for roughly 148,000 of its 437,000 total policies in force.
American Integrity also has policies in South Carolina, where it expanded to two years ago, and Georgia, where it announced it would write new business last month.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation said in May that eight carriers in Florida had received approval to lower rates this year while 10 others said they would keep rates at the same level as last year. The positive development marked “the first time in years” that rate filings have trended down, FLOIR said.