OIR Schedules Multiple Public Hearings On True-Up Filings

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (“OIR”) has scheduled a series of public hearings on “true-up” rate filings by seven insurers.  The OIR press release below details the dates and times of these hearings.

Should you have an comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact this office.

OIR Schedules Multiple Public Hearings On True-Up Filings

TALLAHASSEE (08/07/2007) – The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (Office) has scheduled public hearings on the “true-up” rate filings submitted by Metropolitan Casualty Insurance Company (Metropolitan Casualty), Hartford Insurance Group (Hartford), IDS Property and Casualty Insurance Company (IDS), AMEX Insurance Company (AMEX), Capitol Preferred Insurance Company (Capitol Preferred), Sentry Mutual Insurance Company (Sentry Mutual), and Owners Insurance Group (Owners).  The hearing for these rate filings will be held in Tallahassee, in the Senate Office Building, room 401, at The Capitol. The list of hearing information follows:

Metropolitan Casualty has requested an overall statewide average rate increase of 33.5 percent for its homeowners business in Florida.  The public hearing for this rate filing is scheduled for August 14, 2007, at 1:00 p.m.

Hartford has requested a statewide average rate increase of 29.5 percent for its homeowners business, a 46.4 percent rate increase for its AARP homeowners program, a 50.5 percent rate increase for its dwelling fire business, a 100 percent increase for its AARP dwelling fire program, 146.3 percent rate increase for apartment building coverage under its Spectrum program, a 210.8 percent rate increase for apartment building coverage under its Property Choice program, a 121.7 percent rate increase for condominium building coverage under its Spectrum program, and a 225.9 percent increase for condominium building coverage under its Property Choice program.  The public hearing for these rate filings is scheduled for August 16, 2007, at 9:00 a.m.

IDS and AMEX submitted a rate filing to the Office for a statewide average increase of 49.1 percent for its homeowners business in Florida. The public hearing for this rate filing is scheduled for August 21, 2007, at 10:00 a.m.

Capitol Preferred has requested a statewide average rate increase of 18.8 percent for its homeowners business and 21.5 percent for its dwelling fire business in Florida. The public hearing for these rate filings is scheduled for August 21, 2007, at 1:00 p.m.

Sentry Mutual has requested a statewide average rate increase of 94.8 percent for its homeowners business and 67.6 percent for its dwelling fire business in Florida. The public hearing for these rate filings is scheduled August 30, 2007, at 10:00 a.m.

Auto-Owners, Owners and Southern-Owners have filed for a 38.6 percent statewide average rate increase for homeowners business and a 56 percent rate increase for dwelling fire business in Florida. The public hearing for these rate filings is scheduled for August 30, 2007, at 1:00 p.m.

The requested rates are not uniform and some areas in the state are subject to higher or lower rate changes.  In 2005, the Legislature passed a law requiring the Office of Insurance Regulation to hold a public hearing concerning any residential rate filing that would increase policyholders’ premium by a statewide average exceeding 15 percent.

The hearings are open to the public, and input from interested parties is welcomed.  The hearings are scheduled to be taped by the Florida Channel and video will be available online along with agendas at www.floir.com <http://www.floir.com/>  under the Public Hearings portion of the website.  Those unable to attend the public hearings are welcome to forward comments to the Office at ratehearings@fldfs.com.  The subject lines of the emails should contain the name of the company of interest and the words Rate Hearing.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, any person requiring special accommodations to participate in this hearing should telephone Sam Coskey at (850) 413-2616 or e-mail him at sam.coskey@fldfs.com at least 48 hours prior to the hearing.