Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Shaw Unveils Online Assessment Calculator
July 1, 2009 For Immediate Release
TALLAHASSEE — In an effort to inform Florida’s insurance consumers about additional assessments that could be added to their insurance premiums in the event of a major hurricane, Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw today unveiled a new online insurance assessment calculator, found at
www.MyFloridaCFO.com/ICA.
“Many Floridians are not aware that they could see additional costs tacked on to their insurance premiums in the event of a major hurricane,” said Shaw. “We are hoping that this online assessment calculator can help Florida’s consumers make better, more informed decisions about their insurance choices.”
Floridians can input their current policy information into the assessment calculator and receive an estimation of the assessments that could be charged to their policies in the event of a category 3, 4 and 5 storm hitting either the Miami or Tampa areas.
“I commend Insurance Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw for developing this helpful tool for Floridians,” said Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink. “This assessment calculator is a great resource to ensure Florida residents are aware of the possible impact an assessment would have in the case of a major storm.”
The methodology behind the assessment calculator was developed by an actuary in the Office of the Insurance Consumer Advocate, and has been reviewed and endorsed by several external actuaries. The calculator uses the terms 25-year storm, 100-year storm, and 250-year storm as a reference to storm categories; with a 25-year storm being equivalent to a category 3 hurricane, a 100-year storm being equivalent to a category 4 hurricane, and a 250-year storm being equivalent to a category 5 hurricane.
Users of the assessment calculator will notice that they will have to choose whether or not they are Citizens Property Insurance Corporation customers. Customers who are Citizens policyholders are encouraged to compare the significant difference in the estimation output of both Citizens and non-Citizens policyholders. The calculator gives an estimation based on homeowners, business and automobile premiums, as all of these policy types are subject to the added assessments in the event of a major storm.
The assessment calculator can be found on the front page of the Insurance Consumer Advocate’s website and at the following link:
http://www.myfloridacfo.com/AssessmentCalculator/Consumers/default.aspx
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