Tampa firm absorbs Farmers Insurance policies

Tens of thousands of Florida homeowners will get the chance to slide into new insurance policies with a Tampa-based company.

Slide Insurance announced Friday it had acquired renewal rights for 86,000 Florida homeowners insurance policies from Farmers Insurance.

The transaction does not include Farmers Insurance renters, auto or umbrella policies, Slide said in a news release.

Farmers Insurance told the state in July that it was dropping home, auto and umbrella policies across Florida. It became the fourth company to leave the Florida market over the past year.

The decision by Farmers followed years of turmoil in the state’s property insurance market, triggered by a series of hurricanes starting in 2017. Floridians pay the highest property insurance premiums in the nation, and 13 companies have gone insolvent in recent years.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers responded by making it harder to sue insurance companies and assigning $3 billion to help them withstand storm seasons. The legislation, however, has failed to reduce premiums for homeowners.

Based in Tampa, insurance executive Bruce Lucas formed Slide in 2021. The company boasts of using cutting-edge technology to leverage artificial intelligence and other data to streamline the insurance process.

“We remain bullish on Florida’s insurance market and believe the market is ripe for an innovator like Slide,” Lucas said in the release.

He credited the state’s insurance reforms and the work of Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis for making the transition possible.

“The fact that Slide is picking up 86,000 policyholders is great news for those who were getting dumped by Farmers,” Patronis said in a statement. “... The coverage that Slide will provide will make policyholders’ lives easier — and we’ll continue working to attract more carriers to Florida.”

The policy renewals will begin in February 2024.

Slide also acquired renewal rights to over 91,000 policies from UPC Insurance earlier this year.