While state-backed property insurer Citizens Property Insurance Group
requested a statewide hike of 9.7 percent, Florida homeowners with
policies from the company will see an average increase of 10.3 percent,
Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty announced late Thursday.
The decision to give the group more than it requested came, in part,
from risk variables like sinkholes. Mobile home owners will see their
rates rise by 9.1 percent instead of the 6.1 percent requested by
Citizens. [SFBJ]

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The Florida Division of Financial Services announced that policies issued by Northern Capital Insurance will be terminated May 30, as the Miami-based property insurer will be liquidated. According to Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, the company had less than $4 million in reserve, which fails to meet the minimum state requirements. After liquidation, the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association will cover all former Northern Capital policies — which amount to more than 62,000, largely on South Florida homes. [Palm Beach Post]
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State Farm will not withdraw from Florida’s property insurance market, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty announced today. The company, which is the largest private insurer in the state, had planned to leave because McCarty rejected its proposed 47.1 percent rate increases for customers. Under a new deal, State Farm will be allowed to increase its rates by 14.8 percent and not renew 125,000 Florida homeowners’ policies, primarily in high-risk areas. State Farm will keep roughly 680,000 policies in the state. [Palm Beach Post] and [CBS 4]

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said State Farm might stick around, after all. McCarty said he remains cautiously optimistic that the largest private insurer in the state will continue to do business here, despite earlier plans to leave after it was not allowed to make dramatic increases in its premiums. In January, State Farm said it would stop writing property policies in Florida, where it covers 700,000 homes. Bill Newton, executive director of the Florida Consumer Action Network, agreed that homeowners will benefit if State Farm stays in Florida. [Palm Beach Post]

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has forced National Home Protection to stop issuing and selling home service warranty products, adding Florida to the list of states to clamp down on the company. Last April, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo cited 340 complaints against National Home and froze its assets to ensure customers could be repaid. National Home Protection has 21 days to appeal the cease-and-desist order from McCarty. The Office of Insurance Regulation keeps a list of all Florida-licensed companies in a database.  [more]

A Florida appellate court has denied State Farm Florida’s request to
raise its home insurance rates. The company had proposed a 47 percent
rate hike and appealed to the First District Court of Appeal when
Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty denied the increase. State
Farm has 15 days to ask for a rehearing, but a company spokesperson
said the insurer has not yet decided whether to request one. State Farm
announced plans in January to leave Florida’s property insurance
market. But the company has disagreed with McCarty’s
requirement that State Farm find another home for its policies. [more]

Prosecutors want former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty to serve the five-year maximum sentence for her practices linked to bids for a county hotel and convention centers. Her defense attorneys argue that her long record of positive achievements outweighs the impact of her offenses and seek a sentence that could be under one year. Her husband, Kevin McCarty, just began an eight-month sentence at a federal prison camp in Miami-Dade County after pleading guilty to failing to report his wife’s crimes. [more]

Kevin McCarty, husband of former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary
McCarty, will turn himself in to a federal prison facility in
Miami-Dade County today to start an eight-month sentence. He was found
guilty of not reporting his wife’s practice of accepting free hotel
stays from a Delray Beach company that wanted to build the county’s
convention center. His wife was also found guilty of steering county
bond business to Kevin McCarty’s bond underwriting firm. [more]