Yet Another Florida Insurer Bites The Dust

Following in the footsteps of the St. Johns Insurance Company insolvency in Florida, is the petition for Receivership with the intent to liquidate that was entered into the court of March 4, 2022 for Avatar Property & Casualty which has just over 32,000 policyholders. Avatar agreed to the order and the findings that the company is insolvent. The company wrote only in Florida and 85% of its business is homeowners multi-peril with the rest fire and commercial coverage per AM Best.

This time the Florida Department does not have an insurer lined up to take the Avatar policyholders. When the insurtech Slide took over the nearly 146,000 St. Johns’ policies, there was outcry from other insurers in the state. Insurers were upset that they did not have the opportunity to bid on the St. Johns book of business, and were upset at the transfer of over $90 million in unearned premiums to Slide. Instead the Department has indicated that they will allow agents from other insurers to solicit and rewrite the Avatar policies, otherwise policyholders will have to seek coverage themselves with other private insurers or from Citizens Property & Casualty Insurance Corporation, the insurer of last resort in the state.