An insurance company delaying the paying of claims? No. Couldn’t be. Never.
But in a breath of fresh air from Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation, the second largest property insurer in the state has been hit with a fine of nearly $1.3 million for doing just that.
Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Company has roughly 542,000 policyholders in the state, collecting more than $765 million each year in premiums. Only Citizens Property Insurance does more business in Florida than that.
This success was not built fully on customer satisfaction — or on compliance with state law. In a review by state regulators, Universal was unable to prove that it mailed out cancellation notices or notices of non-renewal on time, and was found to have unnecessarily delayed paying claims. The order signed Thursday by insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty detailed these violations and others relating to how Universal handled complaints, rate filings, investments and financial transactions.
Universal president and CEO Bradley Meier stepped down amid the investigation. Universal has 21 days to decide whether it will appeal the fine before the Division of Administrative Hearings.
Meanwhile, property insurance clients remain largely stuck to ‘choose’ among similar, exclusion-laden policies that may, or may not, pay out when due.
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