The largest private home insurance company in Florida is going ahead with an approved program to cancel 125,000 home, condo, and mobile home policies.  While this is good news compared to the estimated 700,000 policies it was originally planning on non-renewing, this is still a significant number of Florida homeowners who are going to be scrambling to find new coverage.

Another large national company announced plans late last year to cancel another 60,000 policies as it continues to cut back its exposure in Florida.  Perhaps these cancellations will be more easily absorbed because the company arranged for a regional Florida home insurance company to pick up those policies.  However, there is no guarantee that the policyholders who lose their coverage will be able to find a replacement.  It will be especially difficult for homeowners in Florida’s southern coastal counties such as Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach to find alternative coverage.  It will also be difficult for those with older Florida homes and those built with wood frame construction to find replacement coverage.

Last but not least, home grown Florida insurance companies continue to evaluate their existing risks and to selectively cancel policies.  A portion of this is due to their reinsurance agreements which limit how much risk they can assume in certain zip codes.  Sometimes they make a business decision to cut back on coverage especially in the South Florida counties on the coast.  Finally, some of the newer Florida take out insurance companies eventually reject policies that they’ve previously taken out of the state run insurance company after discovering risks that they don’t want to be exposed to.  This could be a poorly constructed home or a home that hasn’t been property updated or that has not been maintained in good condition.

If those aren’t enough reasons to be concerned about cancellations during the coming year there is one other development that could lead to more cancellations.  A large number of homeowners insurance companies in Florida plan to implement an ambitious plan to re-inspect homes that they currently insure.  Some of those homes could be in poor condition and may not be adequately protected enough to prevent hurricane damage to the home.  If your home is re-inspected by your present insurance company and they find a significant difference between the condition of your home and what their records show, you could join the ranks of those who have been cancelled in the coming year.

Finally, if your Florida home insurance policy is cancelled during the coming year, it is important to pay attention to the quality of the new companies you are considering.  Three companies failed during the past year and had to be taken over by the State of Florida.  In addition, over half of the remaining companies still open for business lost money in the last twelve months.  If you are cancelled during the coming year, it is not the time to buy your Florida home insurance simply on price.  It is essential that you shop around.  Select the wrong company and you could be waiting a long time to be paid after the next Florida hurricane.

As the year unfolds, pay close attention to the news and to your mail box.  This might be the year that you have to face the prospect of losing your Florida homeowners insurance coverage.
————————

Michael Letcher is an executive in the Fortune 500.  Use his on-line consumer database to find low cost Tampa homeowners insurance.  Get his free newsletter and learn about low cost Tampa home insurance at =>
http://www.homeinsurancebuyers.org

Presently, Florida homeowners like you get the benefit of wind mitigation discounts for multiple home features that help make your home more resistant to hurricanes.  Home insurance companies are required to give you this discount under Florida law and a specific formula must be used to calculate it.  It includes discounts for home features like the roof shape, system for removing water, roof to wall attachment methods, and whether your home has hurricane shutters among other things.

Home insurance consumers in Florida have enjoyed these discounts which can be up to 50% of the wind premium on a home.  However, homeowners sometimes are disappointed with those discounts as well.  One homeowner who was showcased in the St. Petersburg Times invested $5,225 to strengthen the garage door and for hurricane shutters on his home in Spring Hill, Florida.  He was very upset to find out that his $5,225 investment would only give him a discount of $16.11!  Other homeowners in Florida have saved a lot more.

Started in 2002 along with improvements to the Florida building code, these wind mitigation discounts were an important step in the process to deliver lower Florida home insurance rates to those with homes less likely to sustain serious damage in a Florida hurricane.  The State of Florida doubled those discounts in 2006 to give some rate relief after the big hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005.

At the moment with the approach of the 2010 Florida legislative session, home insurance companies are asking legislatures to reduce some of those discounts.  In some areas the companies might have a point.  To begin with, these does appear to be some fraud connected with those discounts.  This fraud can be the result of homeowners misrepresentations and also due to errors in the findings from the home inspection.  Regardless, it could result in homes receiving discounts that aren’t appropriate.  Florida home insurance companies also point out that doubling these discounts in 2006 was more about currying favor with voters rather than coming up with a scientific way to calculate mitigation discounts based on how your home would actually perform during a hurricane.

Some home insurance companies are ordering new inspections to get a better picture on what’s really been done to harden your home.  If a re-inspection on your home produces discrepancies, you might lose some of your discounts and face a massive increase in your Florida homeowners insurance premiums.

As a homeowner, if these discounts were reduced, you would take a major hit on the cost of your Florida home insurance.  And this would occur during one of the poorest economies of our lifetime. For some homeowners in Florida, losing or reducing those mitigation discounts would result in a massive increase in premium costs.

This is a critical development that all Florida homeowners should be following.  Even slight changes to the mitigation discounts could cause massive increases in Florida home insurance premiums that will make the rate increases already approved look like small change!
————————

Michael Letcher is a Fortune 500 executive who offers an on-line consumer database to help you find affordable Tampa homeowners insurance.  Get his free newsletter and learn about affordable Tampa home insurance at =>
http://www.homeinsurancebuyers.org

Despite this recent period of mild hurricane seasons, the financial stability of many Florida home insurance companies is anything but stable.  More than 50% of the companies that are writing new business in Florida lost money during the past twelve months.  Three home insurance companies suffered a financial collapse and had to be taken over by the state.  One of the companies that failed wrote new business exclusively in the 12 most southern coastal counties in the state.  Why are these companies failing and why is it that so many companies are losing money?

For starters, Florida home insurance rates have been held artificially low by the state for the past three years by the legislators.  While it has been politically popular with voters to do this, low rates have contributed substantially to the poor finances of these companies.  Florida’s state run insurance company – the largest company in the state sets the benchmark for rates in the market.  Because it does not charge enough for the coverage it offers, private companies are forced to keep their rates lower – whether they are losing money or not.  Newly formed companies that take policies out of the state run insurance company have to price their policies at or below the state run company virtually guaranteeing that they will lose money from the start.

There has also been an increase in non-hurricane claims and reopened claims from prior hurricanes.  The tough economy is a factor because anyone who experiences a loss when times are tough is more likely to file a claim in the present environment.  At the present time, home insurance companies in Florida are also experiencing more fraudulent, suspicious claims.  This fraud can involve filing a claim during normal rain storms in order to get money to fix an outdated roof.  It could also include suspicious fire claims along with theft claims from home burglaries that include high value items the homeowner never owned.  Finally, there has been a rise in new and re-opened hurricane claims from the storms of 2004/2005 which led directly to the collapse of one company that had exhausted its reinsurance coverage.

Finally, investment returns are significantly down.  Homeowners insurance companies in Florida are always on the lookout for ways to earn a safe return on their excess cash.  That’s not easy for fund managers to do with the poor condition of the financial markets.  Rates of return on low and risk free investments are way down in this slumping economy with low interest rates.  Locating investments with high rates of return for purposes of investing surplus cash could result in too high of a risk level.  After all, it is unacceptable for your company to deny or delay your claim because it lost your money by investing in a risky stock market.

Your first reaction to the poor performance of these companies might be one of very little concern.  After all, why should you care if an insurance company makes money?

Even if you are the biggest hater of insurance companies ever born, it is still important for your company to make a reasonable profit – especially in years when there are not any hurricanes.  During those mild periods, these companies are supposed to earn a lot more in premium and have a lot less going out the door for claims.  The fact that this hasn’t happened for most companies should be sending out alarm bells across the state of Florida.

Politicians have told you that large insurance companies are evil and it is possible that some of them are.  But it is the newest, smallest home insurance companies that can’t make money in these mild non-hurricane years.  These companies are the future of Florida home insurance.  If they can’t make even a small profit during mild, non-hurricane years, you shouldn’t expect them to have the money to pay your next Florida hurricane claim.

If you are looking for a new homeowners insurance company, now is not the time to be buying based on price.  You have to do your research.  If you simply buy the lowest price policy, you’ll be the one struggling financially if your company goes out of business and has to be taken over by the state.
————————

Michael Letcher is a Fortune 500 executive and a licensed CPA.  His on-line buyers guide can help you find, screen, and contact low cost Tampa homeowners insurance companies.  Learn about affordable Tampa home insurance in his free newsletter at =>
http://www.homeinsurancebuyers.org

To begin with more rate increases are on the way.  The state’s largest insurer of last resort will be passing along increases of up to 10% depending on where you live.  Private Florida home insurance companies have been approved for increases ranging from 10-15%.

Those rate increases might not sound alarming to you.  But they are happening during one of the worst economies in our lifetime.  In addition, Florida recently passed Texas with the highest home insurance rates in the nation.  So a 15% increase on a very high premium to begin with could bring you a nasty surprise.  Finally, while these are average rate increases, expect to pay a lot more if you live in South Florida Counties such as Dade, Broward, or Palm Beach.

Florida home insurance policy cancellations will continue to occur during the coming year.  The largest private Florida home insurance company recently received approval to cancel 125,000 policies over the next two years.  Late last year, another national carrier received approval to drop 60,000 policies.  Again, there could be a lot more cancellations in major areas such as Miami, Tampa, and West Palm Beach especially for older homes and homes close to the coast.

Watch for fewer discounts in the coming year.  Fewer discounts could add to the 10-15% rate increase you will already be facing.  Your company could discontinue discounts you’ve been enjoying for being claim free and multi-line insurance discounts.  Last but not least, Florida home insurance companies are concerned about the wind mitigation discounts you get for replacing your roof or installing hurricane shutters.  If they are successful in challenging those discounts in the upcoming session of the Florida legislature, you could end up paying a lot more.

Homeowners insurance companies in Florida are beginning to fail at an alarming rate – especially when you consider that we’ve been hurricane free for the past three years.  Last year three companies failed financially and were taken by the state.  During the past twelve months over half of all the active Florida home insurance companies in the state lost money.  As a consumer you might not care about that.  But you will if these companies don’t have enough money to pay your claim after a major hurricane.

Finding multiple companies willing to cover you is going to continue to be difficult during the coming year.  Besides the fact that the larger companies are continuing to cancel policies, new companies are not being created fast enough to pick up the slack.  The most difficult homes to cover will continue to be old homes, coastal homes, and wood frame homes.  Coverage will also continue to be difficult to get in the sinkhole prone counties of Pasco, Hernando, and Hillsborough.

All of these developments mean that you should expect Florida home insurance to cost more this year while it continues to be hard to find.  Even worse, you could pay high insurance rates and still end up with a company that won’t have the money to pay your next Florida hurricane claim.

Now more than ever, it is essential that you don’t buy Florida home insurance just on price.  If you do, you will have no one to blame but yourself if you have trouble getting paid after the next Florida hurricane.

Michael Letcher is a Fortune 500 senior executive and a licensed CPA.  His on-line buyers guide can help you find low cost Tampa homeowners insurance.  Find out the secrets to low cost Tampa home insurance in his free newsletter at =>
http://www.homeinsurancebuyers.org

To begin with, the largest private homeowners insurance company in Florida is still moving forward with its planned exit from the state.  If that exit goes forward, over 700,000 homeowners insurance policies in Florida will be cancelled.

Some of the newest Florida home insurance companies are cancelling policies in selective zip codes to balance out their risk or to comply with their reinsurance requirements.

Many Florida home insurance companies are embarking on ambitious home inspection plans.  If those inspections uncover issues that the companies were not aware of, your Florida homeowners insurance policy could be at risk of cancellation.  That could include anything from a home in poor condition to one that is missing hurricane shutters.

Lastly, homeowner insurance rates in Florida are beginning to increase again – the majority will experience double digit increases.

If your Florida home insurance policy is cancelled here is what you can do to find new coverage.

For starters, don’t panic.  Florida law requires insurance companies to give you proper notice before cancelling your policy.  That will provide you with enough time to find a new policy in advance of the Florida hurricane season.

Talk to at least five different independent Florida homeowners insurance agents about your situation.  That will give you the best chance of reaching most of the homeowners insurance companies in Florida still taking on new business.  While your present home insurance agent in Florida can give you some options, odds are that you won’t be given access to all the companies capable of covering your home.

Look for Florida home insurance companies that have shown a willingness to cover older Florida homes.  Some companies will not deny your home coverage due to its age if the major systems in your home have been updated.

Ask each Florida homeowners insurance agent to provide you with companies that are interested in covering homes in coastal counties and those near the coastline.  Again some companies will offer you a policy if your home is near the coast if it meets their distance from water setback and if it has Florida hurricane shutters.

Get a quote from as many companies that are interested in covering your home and make sure each quotes has identical coverage.

Determine the length of time each company has been selling homeowners insurance in Florida.

Research each company’s records for customer service and complaints.

Ask your agent about the company’s risk diversification across Florida and in other states as well.  What you are looking for are companies that have spread their risk across a significant number of Florida counties and into other states.

Investigate the financial ratings of each company and determine the amount of surplus the company has accumulated to pay claims.  If you are considering two different companies that have the same financial rating, select the company that has a larger surplus and more risk diversification.

While it is not good news to lose your Florida homeowners insurance coverage, stay calm.  Contact several Florida independent insurance agents and obtain all of the information described above.  This will increase your probability of finding a new Florida homeowners insurance company if your coverage is cancelled.

————————

Michael Letcher is a Fortune 500 executive and a licensed Certified Public Accountant.  His on-line guide can help you find low cost home owner insurance in Florida.  Learn more in his free newsletter at =>
http://www.homeinsurancebuyers.org

For starters, almost half of all active homeowners insurance companies in Florida reported net losses in 2008 – a year in which no major storms hit.  Those losses continued for many companies into 2009.  Among the reasons for these losses include lower revenue due to inadequate Florida home insurance rates along with rising expenses.

As 2009 unfolded, two Florida home insurance companies failed and were placed in receivership by the state after their cash reserves fell below the required minimum levels.

Florida home insurance companies failing in non-hurricane years should send shockwaves across the state.  Why? Because if these companies can’t make money in non-hurricane years the odds increase dramatically that they will not be able to build up enough cash to pay your claim after a major Florida hurricane.

A closer inspection of the company that failed in the spring of 2009 reveals disturbing trends that could affect other Florida home insurance companies in the future.

To begin with this company faced a significant number of new and reopened claims from Hurricane Wilma – a storm that struck Florida nearly four years ago in October of 2005.  These claims contributed to the ultimate collapse of this company because its backup reinsurance from 2005 was exhausted, leaving this small company on the hook to pay these claims from its own surplus.

In addition, this company had a large number of policies in many of Florida’s southern, most hurricane prone counties in the state.  To its credit, it also had helped many in these counties by its willingness to cover older homes.

What are the lessons from the two Florida homeowners insurance companies that failed this year?

Even if your company meets the minimum capital and reinsurance requirements in the State of Florida it can still fail for many reasons including unexpected reopened claims from prior years and inadequate risk diversification across both Florida and into other states.

Here are the things you should look for when considering a new Florida home insurance company.

The majority of the companies still writing new home insurance in Florida are based in the state.  Look for companies that are diversifying their policy base across most of the 67 counties in Florida so that they have balanced their exposure in the southern coastal counties with policies written in the northern interior counties.

Try to find companies that are looking to expand their home insurance business into other states.  Some of the Florida home insurance companies formed in the mid 1990′s are starting to do this and this is a very encouraging trend.  Companies that distribute their risk into other parts of the country will have improved odds of surviving the next round of hurricanes.

Learn as much as you can about the company’s customer service and claims processing.  If a company you are considering has outsourced this work find out what their customer service history is and how many complaints they have received relative to others in the industry.

Finally, find out how much surplus the company has available to pay claims and check on their ratings with the major financial rating services.  Many Florida home insurance companies being granted premium rate increases should be able to show that they can grow their surplus over time – particularly if Florida continues to have below average hurricane activity.

You should take note of those Florida home insurance companies that were able to stay profitable in 2008 and 2009 when many other companies lost money – together with those that demonstrate the ability to use higher rates going forward to increase their surplus.

In this brave new world of newly formed start-up Florida insurance companies, doing this research will give you the best chance of being paid quickly and fairly after the next round of Florida hurricanes.

————————

Michael Letcher is a corporate executive and a licensed CPA.  His on-line buyers guide can help you find an affordable Florida home owner insurance company for your home.  Get his free newsletter at =>
http://www.homeinsurancebuyers.org

While these sites come in many different shapes and sizes, here are the typical steps they use with regards to home insurance.  You enter information about your home including its location, size, age, roof type, construction materials, and other features along with your contact information.  That information is sent by these websites to insurance companies who review your information and decide whether they would like to quote a price to insure your home.

Companies that are interested in covering your home may send their quote information to the quote generator website you originally used or they will contact you either through one of their agents or directly.  Depending on the quote generator website you used, you may receive an email containing a detailed quote, phone calls from insurance agents, or perhaps both.

Outside of Florida in states where there are hundreds of companies to choose from for homeowners insurance, these quote generator websites are usually helpful.  They do the legwork for you and you end up with a lot of cost effective options to choose from.

Obtaining Florida home insurance quotes is an entirely different situation when it comes to using these websites.

For starters, there are only about 40 Florida home insurance companies writing new business, so unlike in other states, you have a lot fewer companies to choose from.  In addition, you should know that these Florida home insurance companies pay the quote generator websites for each lead that is provided to them.  In reality what is happening is that the Florida insurance companies are paying the quote generator websites for the higher search engine rankings their sites have in order to reach more customers.

If you decide to use a Florida home insurance quote generator website, you will have to consider one or more of the following issues when using them.

First, some Florida homeowners insurance companies won’t partner with the quote generator websites at all.  They sell Florida home insurance direct or through an agent network and don’t want to pay the additional fee to a quote website for the cost of the lead.

In addition, there are a large number of quote generator websites out there for each company to use to buy customer leads from.  They have to select only the quote generator websites that bring the most traffic and the largest number of leads to them.  More importantly, this means that none of these companies can afford to be featured on all of the quote generator websites.  If you pick the wrong quote generator website, you might miss out on 10 to 15 companies in your Florida County that want to cover your home.

In each of the above two scenarios, you can run a very high risk of either missing out on a large number of Florida home insurance companies that want to cover your home or getting a lot of the same quotes from a limited number of companies over and over again.  No matter what, Florida home insurance will cost you more.

Missing out on even one company that is interested in covering you home is not a risk that you should take during the Florida home insurance crisis.  Each new Florida home insurance quote that you obtain could save you thousands depending on where you live.

Finally, if you are planning on using a quote generator website to get Florida home insurance quotes, you have to consider the privacy of your personal information.  While most of these websites protect your personal information, using some of them will result in you receiving a high volume of unwanted emails and phone calls from Florida insurance agents with a quote from the exact same company.

During the Florida home insurance crisis, you’ll have a better chance of finding lower cost insurance if you use multiple independent agents who can offer a large number of companies for coverage instead of relying on quote generator websites.  It is essential that you work with at least two independent agents that each represent a large number of Florida home insurance companies for you to choose from.  Because each agent could represent a different group of companies than another agent in the same area, using more than one agent is the best way to make sure you are getting quotes from all the companies writing new business in your area.

The more Florida home insurance quotes you get, the more you will save during the Florida home insurance crisis.

————————

Michael Letcher is a Fortune 500 executive and a licensed CPA.  His on-line buyers guide can help you find an affordable Florida homeowners insurance quote.  Get the secrets to low cost Florida insurance at =>
http://www.homeinsurancebuyers.org

There are important trends that you should consider on the positive side.

A significant number of homeowners have refinanced to take advantage of lower interest rates.  Refinanced homes are critical because they result in lower monthly payments to help distressed homeowners resulting in fewer additional homes being added to the market for sale that are going though some part of the foreclosure process.

Northern Florida has a stronger economy and job base which has contributed to a lower number of foreclosures as compared to elsewhere in the state.

Property taxes have gone down not due to the laws passed by the Florida legislature, but because lower home values for the past three years are now reflected in the annual property tax bills.

Some of the major realty organizations are offering home buyer price guarantees to encourage prospective buyers like you that may be currently on the fence.  One realty organization is trying to address your concerns about the market dropping further by offering to waive the selling side commission if a qualifying home you buy goes down in value after your purchase it and it has to be resold again.

If you satisfy the requirements, though the end of 2009 you could qualify for an $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit from the US government.

One of the biggest reasons you should consider re-entering the Florida real estate market now is the fact that mortgage interest rates remain near historic lows.  The amount you will save in your monthly payment if you wait for further home price declines might be more than offset by higher interest rates.

On the negative side, the following would suggest that now is not the time to come back into the Florida real estate market and that you need to remain on the sidelines at this time.

Some of the most troubled areas in Florida still have up to 16 months worth of home inventory.  It’s not just the quantity of the homes in that inventory that is the issue, but the mix is also important.  A significant portion of that supply is already at some stage of the foreclosure process and includes everything from short sales to homes already taken back by the bank.  These homes take a lot longer to close and more importantly they distort the competitive market analysis data when they sell.  New home buyers and their realtors can end up spending weeks trying to convince bank appraisers that traditional homes being purchased are worth more than a comparable short sale home that recently sold in the same neighborhood.  In this environment where the home inventory is mixed many experts continue to forecast falling Florida housing prices through the end of 2010.

Homes moving through the foreclosure process in Florida are managed through the court system.  That can increase the amount of time it takes for a distressed home to move through the system and be taken out of the existing home inventory.

The Florida unemployment rate is closing in on 10% with almost 900,000 unemployed workers.  While the state had limited success bringing in new companies through the mid 1990′s, it has struggled recently to attract new businesses and continues to be heavily dependent on the tourism and housing industries.  Florida’s narrow job base still faces a significant challenge to support what is costs to own a home in the state. While it is impossible to present all the current information about the Florida real estate market that you need to make an informed decision on when to re-enter the market, the above items should give you plenty to consider as you weigh your options.

As you think about it please remember that each Florida market is a local market and you have to look at it that way when considering your decision.  Each market has its own housing supply, price levels, employment base, and foreclosures in the pipeline.  Some of those markets are going to come out of the current downturn a lot faster than others.  And if there is one thing that the recent market boom taught us is that once everyone is talking about the recovery it probably too late for you to re-enter the market at a reasonable price level.

As a result, the best thing that you can do to pick the right time to re-enter the market is to work with a local Florida realtor to get the data that you need to make an informed decision.  If you don’t want to research all of the above items, at least take the time to find out the inventory mix of traditional homes for sale compared to those that are in some part of the foreclosure process in your area.  My suggestion would be for you to wait until homes in the foreclosure process have fallen to less than 20% of the total home inventory in your price range before coming back into the Florida real estate market in your area.

————————

Michael Letcher is a Fortune 500 executive and a licensed Certified Public Accountant.  His on-line guide helps Florida realtors find low cost new Florida homeowners insurance for their clients.  Learn more at =>
http://www.homeinsurancebuyers.org

Over this period, I’ve established great relationships with eight business reporters who have ultimately lost their jobs in restructurings or seen their hours cut from full to part time.  It’s been a real eye opener for me.

Both in Florida and nationwide, newspaper companies continue to struggle with debt, Chapter 11 filings, layoffs, and mergers.  This multi-year downward trend has been blamed on everything from debt levels to liberal bias in the print media.  As I’ve operated my own consumer organization and managed my own real estate portfolio I’ve had some surprising experiences with the newspaper print media.

In September of 2008, I lost a tenant that had been renting a home that I own in Port St. Lucie Florida.  In prior years I had taken out newspaper ads that ran about $150 for a two week period that had some limited success attracting prospective tenants.  This time I didn’t bother.  Instead I purchased ads on multiple on-line websites that ran for about one month for about the same price as newspaper advertising.  Those ads didn’t work either.  My tenant ultimately came from a free ad I placed on Craigslist.  There is little doubt that newspapers have lost huge amounts of paid advertising to on-line websites – and specifically to Craigslist.

My consumer website for Florida home insurance is another case study that outlines both the circulation and readership declines that Florida newspapers have experienced.  As my site was launched I was very pleased with the newspaper coverage I obtained and the relationship I built with the business reporters at each newspaper.  There were times when even a full feature story on the front of the business section in certain newspapers resulted in disappointing traffic to the website.

Even though the reporters did an excellent job on the story, my thoughts were that some of these Florida newspapers had circulations that were far below the published estimates.  And the customers of the newspapers who actually read them was even lower.  After these disappointing results I could only think of two things – first a sense of relief that I hadn’t paid for a full page ad in this newspaper, but more also a much more important questions:  What do I have to do to reach my customer base?

Each of the examples above highlight three major problems faced by Florida newspapers – competition from on-line ads, declining circulation, and even less actual readership.  And these areas don’t even begin to address the quality of the content in the newspapers.

One thing I’ve noticed as these Florida newspapers continue to consolidate is a lot less coverage of the Florida home insurance crisis.  Most of the eight newspaper business reporters I’d worked with in the past had been covering the topic for years and were experts on the subject.  Some of the newer reporters now covering this area were being asked to do this on a fill-in basis and it takes a lot of time to learn a complicated topic like Florida home insurance.  Even after the new business reporters are fully up to speed, there are now a lot less space available in the paper itself to cover this topic.  That will give public officials sort of a free pass because there won’t be as much scrutiny of the policy decisions they are considering.  The on-line news media still standing won’t give state public officials the same scrutiny that these newspaper business reporters did.

Which leads me to the final question:  “How do businesses reach their customers in a world where Florida newspaper circulation and readership continues to decline?” Newspapers have plenty of company as far as media companies are concerned.  Unless you have a budget capable of reaching a national television and radio audience, getting the message out to your customer base is becoming increasingly difficult.  Even home town radio and TV stations are facing difficult times.  A portion of the challenge comes back to a simple fact – our lives are so fast paced that the only thing just about all consumers look at during a typical day is the home page on their web browser.

The ongoing trend of consolidating Florida newspapers and the difficulties faced by other types of media means only one thing to small and medium sized organizations.  A new way to reach your customer base that includes multiple delivery methods will be vital to your success.  Traditional media outlets just won’t get the job done in today’s rapidly changing business environment.

————————

Michael Letcher is a Fortune 500 executive and a licensed Certified Public Accountant.  His on-line buyers guide can help you find affordable options to State Farm Insurance Florida.  Find out the secrets to low cost Florida insurance for homes in his free newsletter at =>
http://www.homeinsurancebuyers.org

The bright spot is that the Florida insurance system will be on a much stronger financial footing in the coming years if the state can continue the limited hurricane activity it has enjoyed during the past few years – something that has to happen to improve the chances that most Florida home insurance companies can make good on their promise to pay your hurricane claim quickly and fairly.

The bad news is the fact that all of us will be facing up to a 10% increase in Florida homeowner insurance rates.  A rate increase of 10% might not sound like much of an increase in other states but in Florida the situation is much different.  These increases will be based on higher premiums already in effect after the major rate increases approved after the 2004/2005 Florida hurricanes.  Even before the coming 10% increase, consumers in Florida were already paying the highest home insurance rates in the country.

The rate increases could not be coming at a worse time.  To begin with, Florida is in the middle of a financial crisis just like the rest of the country with depressed real estate, bankruptcies, foreclosure, and increases in unemployment.  These rate increases are going to start happening at the exact same time that State Farm Florida will start cancelling up to 30,000 policies per month as they start exiting the Florida property insurance market.  Our subscribers who presently have their insurance with State Farm are telling us that finding comparable coverage with another Florida home insurance company may cost them up to 200% more after they lose their coverage with State Farm.

So what is the bottom line for you as a Florida homeowner insurance consumer as we move through this challenging period?

To start with, you have to understand that even though there are only 40 companies still writing new business, you still have a good chance of locating 5-10 companies from this group that may still be willing to cover your home – even if it is an older home or has close proximity to the coast.

It is very important for you to shop your Florida home insurance policy with more than one independent agent – someone who represents multiple Florida homeowner insurance companies looking for your business.  Contacting multiple independent agent will ensure that you are able to get quotes from all the companies in your county who want to cover your home – not just the Florida home insurance companies carried by a single agent.

Also, you have to do due diligence and research on all of the Florida homeowners insurance companies that you are getting quotes from.  The 40 companies still willing to write new business vary greatly in terms of their size, financial resources, insurance industry experience, and customer service history.  It is important that you ask your agent how each of the companies you are considering is performing in each of these areas.

As you come up with a short list of companies, work with several independent Florida insurance agents and make sure that you have received quotes from all the companies in your county that are interested in covering your home.  As you evaluate the quotes, don’t buy the Florida insurance for your home simply on price.  Find the right balance of financial stability, outstanding customer service, and the price of the policy.  After all, paying a low price for Florida home insurance isn’t really a bargain if the company you pick pays slowly and won’t pay the full amount that you need to repair the damage to your home after a Florida hurricane?

There is little doubt that these recently approved increases in Florida home insurance will be very difficult to swallow and the timing is very bad.  However, if you take the time to find all of the Florida home insurance companies that are interested in covering your home, you might be able to fight off all of the 10% increase while everyone else has to pay up.  Your research can save you thousands!

————————

Michael Letcher is a Fortune 500 executive and a licensed Certified Public Accountant.  His on-line guide can help you find low cost insurance Florida.  Learn the secrets to affordable Florida insurance in his free newsletter at =>
http://www.homeinsurancebuyers.org