The Florida Legislature created Citizens Property Insurance Corp. in 2002 when it merged two existing state-backed insurance pools, the Florida Residential Property and Casualty Joint Underwriting Association and the Florida Windstorm Underwriting Association. Commonly called Citizens, it is now Florida's largest home insurer. As of November 2007, Citizens insured more than 1.4 million homes, condos and businesses in Florida. Most of Citizens' policies are in South Florida. Citizens employs more than 900 people at its offices in Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Tampa. Citizens Property Insurance is a nonprofit company, run by an eight-person board of governors appointed by the Governor, the state Chief Financial Officer, the Speaker of the House and the Senate President. Board members serve three-year terms. The company also has an executive director responsible for Citizens' daily operations. Citizens once was required to charge rates above the highest price charged by the top 20 home insurers in a given region of the state. In 2007, the Legislature eliminated that requirement, allowing Citizens to be competitive with private homeowner insurance companies. The Legislature also allowed Citizens to start issuing policies to businesses throughout Florida. As the state-backed insurer, Citizens can charge all Florida property insurance policyholders to make up for deficits after catastrophes. All property insurance policyholders are paying a one-time charge $20.70 for every $1,000 of premium they pay toward Citizens' $1.7 billion deficit from the 2005 hurricane season. They'll also pay for the next 10 years another separate assessment of $10 for every $1,000 of annual premium, which will also go toward the 2005 deficit. After the 2004 hurricanes, all property insurance policyholders paid $68 for every $1,000 of premium to pay off Citizens' $516 million deficit. In 2007, the Legislature changed the law on Citizens' assessments to allow the company to charge auto insurance policyholders in addition to property insurance policyholders.
