Citizens Tops 1.4 Million Policies

The News Service of Florida

      The state’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has topped 1.4 million policies, as it continues to add thousands of policies a week. Citizens had 1,406,189 policies as of Friday, up from 1,399,554 policies a week earlier and 1,391,777 policies two weeks earlier, according to data posted on its website. Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort, has seen massive growth during the past three years as private carriers have dropped customers and raised rates because of financial problems. But Citizens is trying to reverse the trend through a process known as “depopulation,” which is designed to move policies into the private market. President and CEO Tim Cerio said last week Citizens is forecasting it will have about 1.3 million policies at the end of 2023, after earlier estimates of 1.5 million to 1.7 million policies. As illustrations of its growth, Citizens had 511,055 policies on Sept. 30, 2020; 708,919 policies on Sept. 30, 2021; and 1,071,850 policies on Sept. 30, 2022, according to its website.