Insurance costs rising

[Steven Darrow]

We're in the process of renewing our insurance policies on our apartment and commercial properties throughout Florida, and I'm being told to expect 15% increases across the board for property, liability, crime, etc. and likely larger increases (several hundred percent) on the umbrella policies. Is this consistent with what everyone else is seeing?

[Jason Bott]

@Steven Darrow I would say 15% is an average increase.  Unfortunately that is the trend in this space right now. 

Florida is a more volatile state for Property coverage, so your increases will always be more than those in the Midwest.

Umbrellas for larger portfolios are doubling in cost in some cases. The company that has been the low cost leader is nonrenewing 100% of the REI Umbrellas.

We are now needing to place clients with option #2 that has always been 25%-50% more than option #1, AND option #2 needed to raise their rates 20%-30% over last year.