Citizens CEO Cerio hails legal reforms as residual carrier PIF cuts continue

By Chris Munro

June 27 - (The Insurer) - Citizens Property Insurance Corporation president and CEO Tim Cerio believes the Florida residual carrier can return to its intended role as an insurer of last resort as he hailed the legislative reforms enacted in late 2022 and the property market improvements they have spurred.

Speaking during Citizens’ board meeting on Wednesday, Cerio also revealed the insurer’s policies in force (PIF) had reduced by 36% from June 28, 2024, through to June 20, 2025, to 777,592.

The total exposure on Citizens’ book has reduced by an even greater amount. On June 20, 2025, Citizens’ total exposure stood at $295.1 billion, a decrease of 43% from $520.1 billion on June 28, 2024.

Citizens has shed over 200,000 policies with an exposure value of almost $83.5 billion from its book since the start of the year.

Cerio said the PIF reduction “is exactly the direction we should be heading in, and we would not be heading in that direction but for the success of the reforms, particularly tort reform”.

“Based on the data we have, it is simply irrefutable that the reforms championed by the governor and passed by the legislature have had a tremendous impact on improving this market,” said Cerio.

“The data bears this out,” Cerio stated. “In a lot of ways, we’re seeing the recovery in the numbers, we’re seeing rates start to go down – that doesn’t always necessarily equate to a premium decrease because of inflation (and) folks’ homes increasing in value.

“But the recovery is there and we’re seeing more and more competition come into the market which is good for Floridians, it’s good for Citizens, and it promotes a smaller Citizens and for us to really return to the role of the insurer of last resort,” he noted.

Cerio highlighted how the volume of litigated claims has reduced dramatically in the wake of the reforms being passed.

“The litigation rate is down significantly,” he said. “When claims were filed back (in 2015, 2016 and 2017), 30% of claims were going to litigation. Last year, that figure dropped to around 10%, and the figure may get down into single digits this year.”

Cerio added: “It is so key and so important that we do everything we can to hold on to these reforms.”

The reductions reflect the depopulation efforts that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has been supporting as Citizens works to move further away from the record PIF count it had in October 2023.

“Our next assumption will be in August,” said Jeremy Pope, chief administrative officer at Citizens.

“(There are usually) low numbers (of takeouts) in August and September, but all indications are that October will be a very, very active month based on applications that have gone through the office thus far,” he noted.

The residual insurer’s best estimate for PIF count at year-end 2025 is 700,565, a figure Pope said is “based on known assumptions today”.

In 2024, 16 carriers participated in Citizens depopulations, of which five were new entrants. Collectively, those carriers assumed 477,821 policies from Citizens, “record-breaking numbers”, Pope said.