Let’s get you startedSign in or create an account to view your personalized quotes.
By continuing, you agree to Insurify's Terms & Conditions.

Florida Insurer Fined for Treatment of Policyholders After Hurricane Ian

Insurance regulators fined Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance $1 million for how it processed claims after Hurricane Ian.

Julia Taliesin
Written byJulia Taliesin
Julia Taliesin
Julia TaliesinEconomic Analyst, Insurance

Julia Taliesin is an insurance content writer at Insurify. She began her career as a journalist, covering local government and business in Somerville, Mass.

Evelyn Pimplaskar
Evelyn PimplaskarEditor-in-Chief, Director of Content
  • 10+ years in insurance and personal finance content

  • 30+ years in media, PR, and content creation

Evelyn leads Insurify’s content team. She’s passionate about creating empowering content to help people transform their financial lives and make sound insurance-buying decisions.

Featured in

media logomedia logomedia logo
John Leach
Reviewed byJohn Leach
Photo of an Insurify author
John LeachLicensed P&C Agent, Senior Insurance Copy Editor
  • Licensed property and casualty insurance agent

  • 10+ years editing experience

  • NPN: 20461358

John leads Insurify’s copy desk, helping ensure the accuracy and readability of Insurify’s content. He’s a licensed agent specializing in home and car insurance topics.

Featured in

media logo

Published | Reading time: 2 minutes

Advertiser Disclosure

At Insurify, our goal is to help customers compare insurance products and find the best policy for them. We strive to provide open, honest, and unbiased information about the insurance products and services we review. Our hard-working team of data analysts, insurance experts, insurance agents, editors and writers, has put in thousands of hours of research to create the content found on our site.

We do receive compensation when a sale or referral occurs from many of the insurance providers and marketing partners on our site. That may impact which products we display and where they appear on our site. But it does not influence our meticulously researched editorial content, what we write about, or any reviews or recommendations we may make. We do not guarantee favorable reviews or any coverage at all in exchange for compensation.

Why you can trust Insurify: Comparing accurate insurance quotes should never put you at risk of spam. We earn an agent commission only if you buy a policy based on our quotes. Our editorial team follows a rigorous set of editorial standards and operates independently from our insurance partners. Learn more.

Share

Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance was slow to pay and respond to claims, kept poor records, and used improperly licensed adjusters following Hurricane Ian, Florida insurance regulators found after an investigation. Regulators fined the insurer $1 million following the probe – one of the largest fines the state has ever administered against an insurer.

The Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) reviewed 324 claims in a “targeted market conduct examination” and found numerous state law violations.

Heritage Insurance has agreed to pay the fine, the Miami Herald reported.

What the regulators discovered

The OIR examination report shared 10 findings about the randomly sampled claims and found Heritage didn’t:

  • Acknowledge it had received communication about a claim within 14 days. (30.2% of claims)

  • Ensure licensed adjusters provided a document with their name and license number to policyholders if the process required a physical inspection. (42.9%)

  • Pay or deny claims within 90 days. (21.6%)

  • Include the adjuster’s name and license number in communications about a claim. (20.4%)

Heritage violated nine state laws, according to the OIR findings, but the report also found the company repeatedly violated its own policy. In more than half the sampled claims, adjusters didn’t initiate voice contact with policyholders within one business day of receiving a claim assignment. Heritage’s 2022 claims handling manual requires this contact.

Heritage CEO Ernie Garateix told the Herald the company had noticed the issues internally and has taken action, including creating a new governance and compliance director role and getting a new claims management software.

Florida’s perfect storm

Hurricane Ian hit Florida as a Category 4 hurricane in September 2022. It was the costliest hurricane in Florida’s history, causing $112 billion in damage.

Ian’s destruction created one more obstacle for Florida’s already struggling insurance market, which was facing increasingly frequent severe weather, insurance fraud, and excessive litigation.

The average annual homeowners insurance premium in Florida is $10,996, the highest in the nation, according to Insurify data. Louisiana ranks second, with an average premium of $6,354 per year.

What’s next: Slightly reducing rates

A few weeks after Heritage agreed to pay the fine, the company announced Florida regulators had approved a 3.3% rate decrease for its standard home insurance policies. The new rate will become effective Aug. 20 for new and renewed policies.

The company credited Florida’s positive legislative changes.

“Our commitment to providing Florida with affordable and reliable insurance solutions remains steadfast,” said Garateix in a press release. “The approved rate decrease is a testament to our efforts in effective risk management and strategic underwriting practices, as well as the favorable impact of legislative changes made in the 2022 special session of the Florida legislature.”

The average annual Heritage Insurance premium is $9,096, according to Insurify data. A 3.3% decrease will lower that to $8,796.


Julia Taliesin
Julia TaliesinEconomic Analyst, Insurance

Julia is an economic analyst and insurance correspondent at Insurify. Since joining Insurify in 2024, she’s researched and written 100+ articles on various insurance topics, including auto, home, renters, pet, and life insurance. She’s been quoted by publishers like Newsweek and the LA Times on topics ranging from the effects of climate change on home insurance rates to the costs of EV ownership.

She began her career as a local journalist, covering local government, business, and public health in the Boston area. She published multiple investigative stories, researching and analyzing public records to report on municipal finances and budget allocation, zoning and building development, and personnel.

Julia holds a Bachelor’s degree in communications from Simmons University, with a focus in journalism. Outside of work, Julia enjoys salsa dancing, singing in cover bands, and baking delicious treats.

Evelyn Pimplaskar
Edited byEvelyn PimplaskarEditor-in-Chief, Director of Content
Evelyn Pimplaskar
Evelyn PimplaskarEditor-in-Chief, Director of Content
  • 10+ years in insurance and personal finance content

  • 30+ years in media, PR, and content creation

Evelyn leads Insurify’s content team. She’s passionate about creating empowering content to help people transform their financial lives and make sound insurance-buying decisions.

Featured in

media logomedia logomedia logo
John Leach
Reviewed byJohn LeachLicensed P&C Agent, Senior Insurance Copy Editor
Photo of an Insurify author
John LeachLicensed P&C Agent, Senior Insurance Copy Editor
  • Licensed property and casualty insurance agent

  • 10+ years editing experience

  • NPN: 20461358

John leads Insurify’s copy desk, helping ensure the accuracy and readability of Insurify’s content. He’s a licensed agent specializing in home and car insurance topics.

Featured in

media logo