Insurtech Slide Insurance has acquired renewal rights from Farmers Insurance for 86,000 homeowner insurance policies in Florida. 

Slide, which launched in February last year, will start issuing renewals from February. Its founder and CEO Bruce Lucas says recent reforms are working and the Florida insurance market is stabilising. 

“We remain bullish on Florida’s insurance market,” he said. “We are very excited to offer guaranteed renewals for every policyholder at a time when insurance capacity is hard to find. None of this would be possible without the strong commitment from the State of Florida to fix the insurance crisis.” 

In July, Farmers Insurance said it would no longer offer home, auto and other policies in Florida under its main brand and also restricted new policies in California. 

Hurricanes Ian and Nicole devastated Florida in 2022 and homeowners in Florida pay about $US6000 ($8774) or three times as much for insurance coverage as the national average. Property and casualty insurers have not collectively earned profits in Florida since 2016.  

Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis welcomed the news from Slide, which previously bought exclusive renewal rights for more than 91,000 Florida homeowners’ policies from UPC, which was running off its business, and received approval to take 98,000 of 184,000 policies from Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corp. 

“The fact that Slide is picking up 86,000 policyholders is great news for those who were getting dumped by Farmers. It also demonstrates that carriers are finding more opportunities in Florida’s insurance environment after the reforms we enacted,” Mr Patronis said. 

The state is intent on attracting more carriers, he says, and new carriers approved to take on business there include Loggerhead and Orion180. 

Tampa-based Slide says the Florida Legislature, Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and Mr Patronis “deserve a lot of credit for their joint efforts to stabilise Florida’s insurance market”.  

“This solution would not be possible without them,” Mr Lucas said.