USAA Dropping Multi Ownership in Florida

A bill (SB 2498) , the Glitch Bill, is awaiting for final Senate approval in the Florida state capital. This would carry out a Governor Crist campaign promise to prohibit private insurance companies from establishing Florida-only subsidiaries. Crist has derided the subsidiaries as a means for insurers to ship their profits out of the state while further charging Floridians excessive rates. The bill must go through two more sessions with the Senate for a final vote.

A Glitch Bill is supposed to mean that small technical problems would be "fixed" in the insurance industry. It is meant for lowering premium rates and regulating how much insurance companies can raise premiums. By fixing these technical problems that would have the insurance companies deliver their savings to the consumer. Insurance companies would be required to resolve claims in 90 days for residential homeowners. However, commercial policies (such as mutli family, condos, town homes, small businesses) would be more complex and would have a difficult time wrapping things up in this short period. Hence, they would not be able to capitalize on the Glitch Bill.

As a consequence of this, a few days ago, I received a letter from my insurance company, United Service Automobile Association (USAA) regarding property insurance. First, let me say USAA has been one of the finest insurance companies around and most admired company. It is offered only to their active and prior military service members. We have been with USAA for nearly 30 years, and no one can compete with them.