WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The rising cost of living in Florida has put many residents in a tough spot financially over the past few years.
It's an issue we have been helping you navigate as those fees continue to hamper your budget.
WATCH BELOW: Insurance executive had this to say about Florida insurance market
As we all try to navigate this insurance market (yes, my premium went up this year), I had the opportunity to talk to Stacey Giulianti, the legal counsel for Windward Risk Managers. The company oversees three insurers: Florida Peninsula, Edison and Ovation, which is one of the new companies in the state.
"We're very bullish about southeast Florida," Giulianti said. "It obviously costs a bit more than other areas of the state, the cost to rebuild a house, a concrete cement type house as opposed to a frame house in the different part of the state, like the Panhandle. It costs more to rebuild those houses."
Giulianti describes himself as a former consumer attorney who has been involved in the insurance industry for 20 years and has lived in Florida since the 1970s.
Ovation, the new company, is starting to write policies through agents with competitive rates, which he said is thanks to the litigation reforms passed by the state in December 2022.
"When you start a new company, you can price a little bit differently because you don't have the old lawsuits, even right now, Florida Peninsula and Edison still have lawsuits, a lot of them are frivolous," he said.
It is those reforms, he said, which have turned things around for the state's insurance industry.
"We just saw in the fourth quarter of 2024, homeowners insurance premiums in Florida go down by 1% on average," Giulianti said.
But profits are up, too, so we asked him about Slide Insurance CEO Bruce Lucas and his wife taking home combined salaries of nearly $50 million. That news stirred controversy and upset many policyholders.
"These are small businesses in terms of profits," Giulianti said. "I can't speak to what one company did, one outlier did. That's a $2.5 billion company valued as of last year. How they decided to spend 1% of their money on a CEO, I have no idea."
He said Ovation has about $50 million in backing, and the three insurers overall have about $2.7 billion.
"I am very optimistic that we've rooted out a lot of the fraud, taken out the frivolous litigation, and we're putting that money back into the consumers and back to paying claims," Giulianti said.
Ovation is just one of at least 14 new companies to come into Florida in the last couple of years to make rates more competitive, but the cost of insurance remains a struggle for many residents.
Matt Sczesny is determined every day to help you find solutions in Florida's coverage collapse. If you have a question or comment on homeowners insurance, you can reach out to him any time.
