Shopping For Homeowner's Insurance

By JoAnn Young - Information complied from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has relaunched an online system that allows consumers to compare pricing on homeowner insurance.

The new system, called the Consumer HomeOwners Insurance Comparison Electronic System (CHOICES), allows consumers to select between two standard risks, and pick any of Florida’s 67 counties. The system generates a window with rankings for the rates of the leading insurers in that county.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said the system is designed to encourage Floridians to shop for a better rate; the system also illustrates the competitiveness of the homeowners’ insurance market in Florida and the benefits of shopping for insurance.”
CHOICES was originally released in 2007 as shopandcomparerates.com. At its peak, the website received nearly 10,000 hits a month.

Instructions When you get into the website:

Click on a county to view the average approved rates for insurers.

Click on the name of an insurance company for contact information.

Click on an insurance company’s average approved rates in one county to see that company’s average approved rates in every county.

The rate quotes reflect the most recent rate filings OIR accepted. The rates do not reflect surcharges or discounts, and OIR encourages consumers to contact their insurance agent, or the company directly to obtain an official premium quote, according to OIR’s statement about the relaunch of the program.
In the last few years, the state has instituted several policies that the OIR claims are designed to make property insurance more competitive. Critics claim the state is allowing companies that are not financially stable to claim policies currently managed through the state-run Citizen’s Insurance, so it can dilute the state’s risk in the event of a hurricane.
Several companies have failed in the last two years, requiring the state to absorb their policies.
OIR has allowed State Farm to raise rates significantly and drop a large number of policies, and is allowing other companies to raise rates in an effort to address criticisms that the state is keeping rates artificially low at levels that are not conducive to running financially healthy insurers.
Citizens has also increased rates and will continue to do so over several years to make rates more sound across the board.
JoAnn Young - Peoples First Financial Services, 321-243-4917 JoAnn@PeopleComeFirst.net

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