Recently, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin M. McCarty announced his resignation. Our association applauds Commissioner McCarty for his leadership in guiding the state’s insurance market back to stability after the storms of 2004 and 2005. His work to help fix the mess of Florida’s out-of-control sinkhole claims was also particularly impactful to our state.

After back-to-back-to-back hurricanes a decade ago, many insurers fled Florida, leaving homeowners with a few, expensive choices. Today, our state’s insurance market is much healthier, more competitive and homegrown, thanks in part to Commissioner McCarty encouraging the formation of new, financially secure Florida-based insurance companies.

In 2012, he employed the Catastrophe Stress Test of domestic insurers to evaluate the market’s ability to withstand various hypothetical storm scenarios. In 2015, the results of these stress tests demonstrated that all of the 112 participating insurance companies, including 67 Florida-based insurers, were found to have sufficient reinsurance, capital and surplus to pay policyholder claims in the event of a one in a 100 year storm. This is a tremendous accomplishment compared to where we all stood only a decade ago.

Our association believes Commissioner McCarty was a true advocate for consumers and our property insurance market, and we thank him for his service.

–William Stander, executive director of the Florida Property & Casualty Association (FPCA)