If your home is currently insured by Citizens Insurance (the State run company), you may be one of the 304K policy holders that will receive a “takeout” letter from Citizens.  This will contain an offer from a private insurer to take over your insurance from Citizens on October 17^th.

If the offer is over 20% greater than your current Citizens premium, you can opt to stay with Citizens.  You need to notify them by October 10^th if you wish to stay.

If the offer is less than 20% greater than your current Citizens premium, your insurance with Citizens will end on October 17^th.  If you do nothing, the takeout insurer will become your new insurer on that date at the new premium.  You also have the option to find another carrier on your own, but you will need to notify Citizens by October 10^th.  An insurance agent representing the new company you select should be able to do the notification for you.

It is important that you do not ignore this letter.  As a closing thought, I’m not sure why they would do this during hurricane season.  The chaos of so many new policy holders having claims just days after the switch date would be insane.

The Bottom Line:  Read the takeout letter, and explore your options.

–Michael Ross, CFP®