Citizens To Shift Thousands Of Policies To Private Market

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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has been given state permission to shift nearly 80,000 policies to the private market.

The new round of private-insurer "takeouts" of Citizens policies will occur in April. The four companies approved for the "takeouts" are First Community Insurance, Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance, Mount Beacon Insurance and Prepared Insurance Company.

Of the policies that could change hands, up to 78,897 will be for coverage on single-family properties and 500 for commercial-residential properties. The actual number of policies that will eventually move into the private market is not expected to reach the approved maximum.

In 2014, of the 1.1 million policies approved for "takeout," nearly 700,000 didn't move into private hands. Citizens, which has been working to shift its least-risky policies into the private market, has reduced its number of policies from 1.5 million in 2012 to 661,161 as of Dec. 31, 2014.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.