Claim: Citizens Property Insurance has "over $500 billion worth of risk, with less than $10 billion worth of surplus.
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: Fidelity Property & Casualty can remove 10,000 each. Private insurers have taken out more than 312,000 Citizens policies this year. [Citizens] President Barry Gilway has said the goal is to trim Citizens down to about 800,000 policies." As of April 2014, Citizen policies fell below one million, to 940,000. Cash reserves totaled $7.6 billion, a record. Since the 2005 pull back by insurance giants Allstate, State Farm, etc., small, in-state companies have been taking a larger share of policies. These start-ups have not followed the traditional insurance model by accumulating cash reserves to cover expenses in high claim years. Instead,

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: age of structure, and construction type". Florida House Bill 1495, passed in 2009, allows Citizens to raise rates gradually over five years to become actuarially sound. This was intended to shift the risk from taxpayers to the private sector. In the spring of 2012, Florida Governor Rick Scott stated in a survey with the Florida Council of 100 that Citizens Insurance had $504.8 billion in risk and just $6.1 billion in cash reserves. PolitiFact Florida, a fact checker of the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald, researched Scott's claims. They concluded that while the company did have $500 billion in

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: exposure, storms would have to damage or destroy every Citizens-insured home in all 67 Florida counties. A "century storm", with a 1% chance of occurring in any year, would generate no more than $21 billion in claims. Regarding the resources available to pay claims, the Citizen's own website states that their "Claims‐Paying Ability" is $19.5 billion. There is a $1.5 billion disparity, prompting the governor to order Citizens to reduce its risk. Barry Gilway was hired on June 18, 2012 as President and Chief Executive Officer of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, replacing Tom Grady. With 42 years of experience in

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: major hurricanes during that time frame. Florida taxpayers were forced to cover $400 million in losses. Despite concerns about the OIR, "State regulators have approved six property insurers to remove up to 151,000 policies from state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. in February [2014]. [...] Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation last month approved First Community Insurance Co. to take out as many as 51,249 Citizens policies, while Safepoint Insurance Co. may remove up to 40,000 policies. Elements Property Insurance Co. and Heritage Property Casualty Insurance Co. each have been approved for up to 20,000 policies. Southern Fidelity Insurance Co. and Southern

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: 3.5 million Florida homes in 2010. That same year, Japan-based Tokio Millennium Re Ltd. became an approved Florida reinsurance vendor. As of 2011, Citizens had cash and investment totaling $11.3 billion and 1.3 million policyholders. The Florida Council of 100 published a position paper in 2010 entitled, ""Into the Storm: Framing Florida's Looming Property Insurance Crisis"". Chief among problems identified was that Citizens Insurance was undercapitalized and charges "rates that are not actuarially sound". The study also found that low-risk property owners were subsidizing high risk policies. They concluded that rates must be based on risk factors, including "geographical location,

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: FWUA were close to shifting most of their 711,000 policies to private insurers. In 2002, the Florida Legislature passed legislation to merge the Florida Residential Property and Casualty Joint Underwriting Association (FRPCJUA) and the Florida Windstorm Underwriting Association (FWUA). This resulted in the creation of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (Citizens), whose goal is to more efficiently and effectively provide insurance to, and serve the needs of, home-owners in high-risk areas and others who cannot find coverage in the open, private insurance market. There were four major storms in 2004 that made landfall in Florida, with total damages exceeding $57 billion.

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: over by the state, who paid off remaining claims. As the 2013 season started, pressure on insurers to lower rates was high because reinsurance costs fell by 15% since 2012, which also had lower costs. Claim expenses were down thanks to seven years without a major hurricane, and rate hikes during those years increased revenue from premiums. Citizens Property Insurance Corporation Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (Citizens) was created in 2002 from the merger of two other entities to provide both windstorm coverage and general property insurance for home-owners who could not obtain insurance elsewhere. It was established by the Florida

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: The following year brought five major storms, including Katrina, the most expensive Atlantic hurricane of all time. Once again, several companies pulled out of the Florida market due to an extraordinary number of hurricane and new sinkhole related claims. Citizens became not just the insurer of last resort, but the insurer of only resort for many Floridians. As of 2005, Florida owed almost $5 billion, which would be recovered through insurance policy assessments. The cost of insurance and its availability became an important "hot button" issue in Florida, especially in the 2006 elections. Through 2006, Citizens Insurance charged its customers

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (Citizens) was created in 2002 from the merger of two other entities to provide both windstorm coverage and general property insurance for home-owners who could not obtain insurance elsewhere. It was established by the Florida Legislature in Section 627.351(6) of Florida Statutes as a not-for-profit insurer of last resort, headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, and quickly became the largest insurer in the state. The company has no connection to Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the equivalent entity in Louisiana, or several similarly named "for-profit" subsidiaries in the Hanover Insurance Group. Hurricane Andrew in

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: 1992 was the costliest storm the United States had experienced, with $26.5 billion in damage. It took a huge bite out of the reserves for claims held by 30 insurance companies doing business in Florida. Eleven insurance companies were bankrupted, while others stopped writing or renewing property insurance policies in the state. Those that remained raised premiums and deductibles across the board and limited the number of high-risk policies they wrote. Almost 1 million coastal homeowners were unable to find any company willing to insure their homes, so the Florida Legislature authorized the formation of the Florida Residential Property and

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: approved a deal in which Heritage Property and Casualty Insurance, formed in 2012, was offered $52 million to take over 60,000 accounts ($867 per policy). Florida CFO Jeff Atwater admitted that Heritage did not have the financial strength to take over the policies without the incentive, but Citizen's President Barry Gilway insisted that Heritage was "one of the most well-capitalized" in Florida. In March 2013, while negotiations were in progress, Heritage made a $110,000 donation to the re-election campaign of Governor Scott. A spokesman for the governor stated that the Citizens deal was not influenced by the governor. State leaders

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: of Florida homeowners to subsidize Citizens policies, in addition to 100 percent of businesses, charities, religious institutions, renters, automobile policyholders, local governments and school boards." The bill did not make it out of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee before the Legislature adjourned in May, 2013. In an effort to encourage more private companies to acquire homeowners policies serviced by Citizens (known as "takeout" policies), Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) was authorized to provide monetary incentives based on the number of Citizens policies acquired. In May 2013, just three of the eight members of the Citizens Board of Governors

title: Citizens Insurance
text: not for profit, insurer of last resort. From the website of the "Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation": "The Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is a nonprofit organization created to provide insurance products for residential and commercial property applicants who are in good faith entitled, but unable, to procure insurance through the voluntary insurance marketplace." Citizens has the ability to levy assessments against all other Property and Casualty insurance policies should needed capital be otherwise unavailable. Citizens Insurance Citizens Insurance, or Citizens, is the popular name for government established, not-for-profit insurers in Florida and Louisiana. In Florida, the insurer is Citizens

title: Citizens Insurance
text: Citizens Insurance Citizens Insurance, or Citizens, is the popular name for government established, not-for-profit insurers in Florida and Louisiana. In Florida, the insurer is Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. In Louisiana, the insurer is the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. Both were established in their respective states as insurers of last resort. The Louisiana corporation is also known as "Louisiana Citizens" Neither of these is connected with for-profit insurers with similar names. "Citizens Property Insurance Corporation" was created in 2002 by the Florida state government to provide property insurance for home-owners who could not obtain insurance elsewhere. It is a government-owned,

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: the insurance industry, he has a reputation as a turnaround specialist. He was keenly aware that his first priority was to shrink the number of Citizens policies. Throughout 2012, Citizens asked 174,000 of its nearly 1.4 million policyholders to move their policies to five private insurers. Approximately 25,000 of that group chose to remain with Citizens, The state determined that those five private insurers were financially sound and able to absorb more customers, but issues such as higher premiums, customer responsiveness and number of consumer complaints must be determined by the policyholder. Florida law gives the consumer 30 days from

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: they pay as much as half of the policy premium for reinsurance to offshore companies to cover claims. In the seven years since the last major Florida hurricane, profits have risen, but many small companies shifted that money into affiliated businesses and ignored the need for a reserve. Insurance rates were based on the company making a reasonable profit after expenses, which included funding a reserve. The OIR suggests that insurance companies have reserves and reinsurance to cover a once in 100-year storm. Many firms in past years purchased less, and if claims exceeded reinsurance and reserves, they were taken

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: notification to decline their policy transfer before it is assumed by a private firm. On February 8, 2013, Senator Jeff Brandes filed Florida Senate Bill 724, a comprehensive bill to overhaul Florida property insurance law to avoid new "hurricane taxes" which would be necessary if another catastrophic hurricane ravaged the state. The proposal is unpopular among many Citizens customers because it would mandate more rate increases to what they consider to be already high premiums. A similar bill was defeated in 2012. However, businessman, and former US Representative Tom Feeney commented, "It is unfair to continue to require 77 percent

title: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
text: the highest rate approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation to avoid competing with private carriers. Insurance agents were prohibited from writing policies through Citizens if there was a private (not surplus lines) carrier that would write the risk. If a qualified insurance company was willing to take a group of policies, Citizens Insurance would transfer them to that company and cancel coverage. Customers had no recourse. Florida Senate Bill 2498, known as the "Glitch Bill", was signed into law by Governor Crist on June 11, 2007. This legislation permitted agents to write a Citizens policy for customers if

title: State Farm
text: threatened to withdraw from writing property insurance business in Florida after state regulators refused to approve a 47% property rate increase. State Farm said that, in Florida, it had paid out $1.21 million USD in claims for every dollar in premiums since 2000. Several other home insurers have pulled out of Florida as well; many homeowners are now using the Citizens Property Insurance Corporation run by the state government. State Farm has since decided to remain in Florida, although with a reduced amount of property policies. In 2010, State Farm and Renaissance jointly formed DaVinci Reinsurance Ltd. which insured more

title: Janet C. Long
text: as top priorities. During the campaign, Long suggested solutions for the Florida insurance crisis, while acknowledging the complexity of the issues. She recommended making Citizen's Property Insurance Co, the state-run "insurer of last resort," more like a business, assessing risk and operating within a balanced budget. She recommended forming a consortium of coastal states to share costs in dealing with windstorms and catastrophic loss. She also recommended looking into "insurance savings accounts" to deal with catastrophic loses. These accounts would be funded with money from premiums paid by citizens and the private insurers. She received the endorsement of the "St.