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Florida Farm Bureau asks for rate hike again

By Tom Zucco, Times Staff Writer
In print: Thursday, July 31, 2008

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TALLAHASSEE — It was a hearing marked by grimaces, blunt exchanges and long, awkward pauses.

Less than a month after its 2007 rate request was formally shot down, officials from Florida Farm Bureau Insurance appeared Wednesday before state regulators to again ask for about the same-sized rate hike for most of its 100,000 policyholders.

"It's like deja vu all over again," said Steve Parton, general counsel for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, or OIR.

Gainesville-based Farm Bureau wants a statewide average 28.4 percent rate increase for next year. In Hillsborough County, the average rate increase would be 30 percent; in Pinellas County, it would be 66 percent. Farm Bureau insures about 12,000 homeowners in the bay area.

Last year, Farm Bureau's request for a 26.8 percent increase was denied by regulators, and the denial was recently upheld by an administrative law judge.

Farm Bureau actuary Missy Shelley spent nearly three hours explaining the increased premiums would let her company needed to buy more back-up coverage, or reinsurance, to protect itself and its policyholders.

That was essentially the same justification the insurer used last year.

Parton questioned whether Farm Bureau had relied too much on input from its management team, rather than hard data from state-approved hurricane models, and whether the company had bought more reinsurance than it needed.

"It sounds to me like you're pulling numbers out of the air and then building your case," Parton said.

No, Shelley insisted. "The numbers are definitely not pulled out of the air."

If Farm Bureau's request is denied, the company can withdraw the filing, refile or appeal.

Next up for regulators is State Farm, Florida's second-largest property insurer. Earlier this month, State Farm asked for a 47 percent statewide rate increase. That hearing is set for Aug. 12.

Tom Zucco can be reached at zucco@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8247.