Florida insurance crisis: Insurers can now take on Citizens policies

As homeowners continue piling into the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp., regulators this week approved proposals that could lead to private insurers pulling as many as 184,000 policies from Citizens starting in October.

Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky signed orders Monday approving the proposals by Slide Insurance Co., Safepoint Insurance Co., Southern Oak Insurance Co., Florida Peninsula Insurance Co. and Monarch National Insurance Co.

Slide received approval to assume as many as 100,000 Citizens policies, by far the largest amount, according to the orders posted on the state Office of Insurance Regulation website. Safepoint could take as many as 30,000 policies; Southern Oak, 25,000 policies; Florida Peninsula, 19,000 policies; and Monarch, 10,000 policies. Each could start pulling policies from Citizens on Oct. 17.