More Citizens customers rejecting policy transfers

More policyholders are resisting the transfer of their coverage from state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corporation to smaller private insurers.

Citizens, Florida’s largest property insurer, has been deliberately getting smaller through a so-called takeout program, under which Citizens transfers its least-risky policies to private insurers.

Citizens has reduced its policy count to about 585,000 from a peak of 1.5 million in 2012.

Policyholders can choose to stay with Citizens after notification of a pending switch in coverage, and more are doing so.

So far in 2015, more than 50 percent of the Citizens policyholders notified of a pending transfer of their coverage to another insurer stopped the switch and stayed with Citizens. In 2014, the comparable transfer-offer rejection rate was 30 percent.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has approved transfers of a total of 130,000 Citizens policies in December to four private insurers: Anchor Property & Casualty Company, Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Olympus Insurance Company, and United Property & Casualty Insurance Company. [Palm Beach Post] — Mike Seemuth