How legal reform, market confidence, and steady players like Windward Risk Managers are reshaping the conversation nationwide
When it comes to property insurance, few states have captured the nation’s attention quite like Florida. For years, the state symbolized everything wrong with an insurance market: runaway litigation, skyrocketing premiums, and a shrinking pool of private insurers. Yet today, Florida is fast becoming the example of how smart legislation and industry resilience can rewrite the national playbook.
As policymakers across the country debate how to make insurance more affordable, the evidence is mounting: Florida homeowners insurance reform results speak for themselves. As FAIA president and CEO Kyle Ulrich recently noted in an industry commentary, these reforms are reshaping the market.
From Rate Caps to Real Reform
While some states experiment with political rate controls or price caps, Florida took a different route – fixing the root causes instead of regulating the symptoms. Lawmakers passed two sweeping insurance reform packages in 2022 and 2023 targeting the primary driver of rising costs: excessive litigation.
These reforms eliminated one-way attorney fees, banned the abuse of assignment-of-benefits (AOB) contracts, shortened the statute of limitations for negligence claims, and strengthened bad-faith standards. Together, these changes restored fairness, transparency, and predictability to the state’s legal environment, which were long-missing ingredients in Florida’s insurance ecosystem.
The outcome has been dramatic. According to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (FOIR), Florida represents about 15% of all U.S. homeowners insurance claims but historically accounted for more than 70% of all homeowners claim litigation nationwide. Since the reforms took effect, this litigation volume has fallen by roughly 25% year over year, marking the lowest lawsuit frequency in more than a decade. Those are the kinds of Florida homeowners insurance reform results no rate cap could ever deliver.
Proof Reform Works
Three years after the first round of reforms, Florida’s market looks fundamentally different – and healthier.
- More competition: Seventeen new insurers have entered or re-entered the market, injecting over half a billion dollars in private capital.
- Rates stabilizing: Thirty-three carriers have filed for rate decreases or no change in 2025, according to OIR data. Among them, Florida Peninsula Insurance Company – one of the state’s leading private carriers – requested its largest rate decrease in 20 years, averaging 8.4% statewide for homeowners policies and 12% for condo policies.
- Citizens shrinking: The state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, once the largest insurer in Florida, continues depopulation efforts and is expected to finish 2025 with fewer than 500,000 policies in force.
- Reinsurance relief: After years of steep increases, risk-adjusted reinsurance costs have leveled off for the second consecutive year.
These indicators all point to one clear conclusion: Florida homeowners insurance reform results are translating into measurable progress. Legal reform worked where short-term political fixes failed.
Windward Risk Managers: Steady in the Storm
Windward Risk Managers knows success in Florida’s insurance market doesn’t come from quick reactions. It comes from long-term commitment and smart adaptation.
While others theorized, Windward Risk Managers and its carriers stayed the course – innovating, investing, and expanding, even in volatile conditions. The company’s leadership maintained a clear-eyed focus on stability and service throughout the state’s most turbulent years, helping navigate the transition from crisis to recovery.
As proof of confidence in the state’s long-term direction, Windward Risk Managers launched its third carrier, Ovation Home Insurance Exchange, in 2024. Ovation joined Florida Peninsula Insurance Company and Edison Insurance Company – two carriers with a long history of weathering Florida’s market cycles and emerging stronger. Together, they reflect the resilience and forward-thinking characteristic of Windward Risk Managers’ guiding principles.
For Windward Risk Managers, Florida homeowners insurance reform results aren’t abstract policy wins; they’re tangible outcomes visible in rate filings, insurer participation, and market confidence.
Ripple Effects Across the Nation
Florida’s success hasn’t gone unnoticed. From Louisiana to California, other states are studying the blueprint behind these outcomes.
Louisiana has already implemented its own version of litigation and AOB reform, coupled with grant incentives to attract private insurers. Texas courts have reinforced anti-assignment provisions mirroring Florida’s approach. Even California – long known for its strict price controls – acknowledges rate caps can backfire when they drive insurers out of the market entirely. California’s own Department of Insurance has acknowledged this dynamic, noting insurers have reduced exposure in some markets when rates can’t keep pace with rising risk.
In each case, the conversation is shifting from How do we control prices? to How do we control costs? This is the real lesson behind Florida homeowners insurance reform results: affordability follows availability, and availability follows legal reform.
Stability Is the New Strategy
With litigation down, more carriers returning, and reinsurance prices flattening, Florida’s insurance environment is stabilizing faster than many predicted. But this doesn’t mean the work is over. The challenge ahead is ensuring sustainability – keeping markets healthy even when the next storm season hits.
At Windward Risk Managers, it’s where the focus remains: strengthening underwriting discipline, supporting carriers with operational expertise, and partnering with agents who know how to communicate value beyond price. The company’s success managing multiple Florida-based insurers through years of volatility is a testament to what’s possible when experienced leadership meets sound reform.
As more states consider their own insurance reform efforts, Windward Risk Managers stands as an example of the private sector’s vital role in market recovery. From legislative awareness to capital management and claims innovations, the company continues to embody the principles making reform work in practice – not just on paper.
Florida’s Insurance Turnaround Proves Reform, Not Rate Caps, Drives Affordability
Three years ago, few outside Florida would have believed the market could rebound so quickly. Yet today, the state’s insurance turnaround has become the new case study in how to restore affordability and rebuild confidence without resorting to political price caps.
Florida homeowners insurance reform results prove what industry insiders have long argued: when you fix the incentives driving costs – rather than the rates reflecting them – markets recover.
As other states look to replicate Florida’s success, Windward Risk Managers and its carriers will continue to do what they’ve always done: stay steady, adapt quickly, and deliver reliable protection to the homeowners and agents who depend on them.
To learn more about Windward Risk Managers and the three carriers we proudly manage – Florida Peninsula Insurance Company, Edison Insurance Company, and Ovation Home Insurance Exchange – visit their respective websites or email us at marketing@windwardrisk.com.
