Best’s News & Research Service - May 20, 2026 09:09 AM (EDT)
Best’s Special Report: Florida Reforms Prove Positive as Underwriting Gains Increase Sharply; Softening Reinsurance Pricing May Sustain Market Momentum
- May 20, 2026 09:09 AM (EDT)
//BestWire// - Florida-domiciled personal property specialist companies recorded nearly $1 billion in underwriting gains, following a $132 million underwriting loss just two years ago, highlighting market stabilization and increasingly manageable market conditions, according to a new AM Best report.
For its Best’s Market Segment Report, “Florida Reforms Are a Positive Development; Underwriting Discipline Remains Essential,” AM Best identified 51 Florida-domiciled insurance carriers that predominately underwrite personal property in the state. This composite excludes insurers that are affiliated with large national carriers, as well as Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (Citizens), and include companies that have become financially impaired or merged in recent years to appropriately reflect back-year data.
“The improved Florida property insurance landscape reflects reduced litigation and claim solicitation, attracting new writers to the state while allowing existing writers to recover from losses in earlier years and take advantage of more refined pricing sophistication, said Lauren Magro, senior financial analyst, AM Best. “While 2024 marked the first year of an underwriting profit for the segment in over a decade, results in 2025 only further extended this trend and benefited from no named hurricanes making landfall.”
With Florida being a hurricane-prone state, personal property writers remain reliant on the reinsurance market for capital protection. Modest reinsurance rate reductions were realized at the 2025 midyear renewals, and more pronounced cutbacks are expected at the 2026 midyear renewals. Florida carriers’ ceded reinsurance leverage as a percentage of policyholders’ surplus still sits far above the general personal property industry average. The top 10 active Florida composite companies exhibited an average ceded reinsurance leverage of 562% in 2025 compared with 55% for the U.S. personal property composite average.
“With profitability stabilizing and primary carriers’ balance sheets bolstered through sizable capital appreciation, along with stronger underwriting guidelines, some negotiating power shifting back toward primary carriers is likely,” said Chris Draghi, director, AM Best. “However, prospective reinsurance market trends remain influenced by hurricane activity – a significant-sized hurricane event that passes through a major city in Florida could change market dynamics.”
Other takeaways include:
- Among all personal property writers in Florida, regardless of ties to national carriers or business strategy, Citizens’ remains in the top spot despite its direct premium written dropping by more than 44% from the prior year, owing to successful depopulation efforts.
- Spurred by legislative reforms enacted in recent years, Florida insurers’ defense and cost containment expenses - a viable indicator of expenses related to litigation – dropped to approximately $131 million, marking a 68% reduction from 2024 and nearly an 80% drop from the high in 2022.
- Digital tools are becoming increasingly embraced by insurance carriers to improve pricing granularity and drive pricing efficiencies, driving a shift toward a softer market. This is a marked change from several years ago when significant volatility drove the need to apply sizable rate increases.
To access the full copy of this special report, please visit http://www3.ambest.com/bestweek/purchase.asp?record_code=364983.
AM Best will host a complimentary analytical briefing on the state of Florida’s property/casualty market ahead of the start of hurricane season, on Thursday, May 21, 2026, at 2 p.m. EDT. For more information and to register, please visit here.
AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City.