CFO Alex Sink wants Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty to better explain his recent claims that 40 new insurance companies have come into Florida, bringing $4-billion in new capital.
The Times/Herald reported recently that most of that new capital is from unregulated, surplus lines companies that do not typically write residential home policies. Earlier this month, Sink got a letter from Sen. Mike Bennett that refers to the article and asks her to help him "validate" McCarty's figures. (The letter is here: Download Bennett letter to CFO Sink 071509)
Sink on Tuesday at the Cabinet meeting asked McCarty to come back and "kind of re-order the list'' to better explain the difference between the Florida domestic admitted market insurers and those writing surplus lines insurance. She said her staff calculated that the residential insurance companies on the list that were number 1-17 had $328 million in capital and those numbered 29-40 were surplus lines insurers with $3 billion in capital.
"Certainly it's a great thing to have any form of new capital,'' Sink said. "But some are writing residential; some are writing commercial. There has been a lot of noise around this whole $4 billion issue,'' she said.
"There has indeed,'' McCarty responded.
Related posts: