Action by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation to place a second property insurer this year into liquidation comes at a time when the state's property insurance segment showed a higher rate of potential financial stress.
The liquidation order by the regulator, or OIR, against Gulfstream Property & Casualty Insurance Co. followed similar action against commercial property insurer American Capital Assurance Corp. in April.
The OIR acted against Gulfstream after the insurer was unable to complete a deal with a new investor to help bolster its finances. According to an OIR order in May, the insurer signed a letter of intent with an investor which required the cancelation of over 20,000 polices as one condition of the investment. If the deal fell through, Gulfstream consented to immediate administrative supervision by the OIR.
Supervision orders are typically confidential but the OIR released the signed order in the best "interest of the public" on June 25.
In light of the OIR's action, S&P Global Market Intelligence analyzed the most recent Insurance Regulatory Information System, or IRIS, ratios for Florida property insurers, as of Dec. 31, 2020. The analysis included 21 companies that collected at least 50% of their total direct premiums written in 2020 from Florida's property lines of business. Of those insurers, the combined Florida direct written premium must be over $50 million in allied lines, nonliability commercial multiperil and homeowners lines of business.
The IRIS system was created by the National Association Insurance Commissioners to aid individual state regulators in measuring the liquidity and solvency of insurers and not meant to replace the oversight efforts of states’ departments of insurance.
The IRIS ratio and trends can be helpful in identifying companies experiencing financial hardships; however, financially solvent companies may have some "unusual" ratios in any given year. Insurers that fail one or more tests may need greater regulatory attention, but results are subject to each individual company’s circumstances and not the final arbiter of the financial condition of an insurer.
The analysis showed that number of "unusual" IRIS ratios for Gulfstream had increased since 2016. The company ended 2020 with seven "unusual" items compared to four as of Dec. 31, 2016.
American Capital and Gulfstream were not the only Florida property insurers to experience a high number of "unusual" IRIS ratios at year-end 2020. The number of companies with multiple "unusual" ratios has been steadily increasing since 2016.
Of the 21 companies, 11 of them had five or more "unusual" ratios at year-end 2020, compared to only 3 at the end of 2019, and none in 2016. The median number of "unusual" ratios per company increased by three in 2020 to five ratios as of Dec. 31, 2020.
Florida property insurers have struggled under the strain of litigation and higher reinsurance requirements and costs for several years. Those woes have continued into the first quarter of 2021 as the Florida Domestic Market, excluding national carriers, reported negative underwriting results of $320 million along with net income losses of $244 million, according to a presentation by Citizens Property Insurance Corp. President and CEO Barry Gilway at its July Board meeting.
Gilway also noted a "disturbing trend" in year-to-date litigation through June of 2021: the number of lawsuits against insurers, excluding Citizens, increased 51% year-over-year to 50,951 versus 33,800 during the first six months of 2020. However, he noted some positive signs for the industry and Citizens; such as, the passage of Senate Bill 76 and "significant investor interest" in the marketplace which may bring additional insurers with new capital entering the Florida market.
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