Industry leaders urge DeSantis to veto billionaire-backed insurance bill

Florida in Five: Five stories to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Mar 29, 2026

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Welcome to another installment of Florida in Five: Five* stories you need to read from the past week in Florida politics.

A bill headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis that would force some Florida condo residents to pay higher prices for property insurance has run into some surprising opposition — from the insurance industry itself.

A trade group representing insurance wholesalers and surplus lines insurers has told its members that Senate Bill 1028 “raises several core concerns” and that it opposes the legislation. An organization representing independent insurance agents has warned its own members that it has “significant concerns” with the bill.

One longtime insurance lobbyist in Tallahassee recently wrote that Senate Bill 1028 has left “insurance industry veterans scratching our heads” about why it is needed at all. And another industry lobbyist wrote last week that “several stakeholder groups are urging the governor to veto the measure.”

The legislation in question centers on Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which is Florida’s public nonprofit insurance company for homeowners and business owners who cannot find affordable coverage on the private market.

Senate Bill 1028 would, among other things, require Citizens to set up a new program through which surplus lines insurance companies could take over policies covering condominium buildings and other commercial properties. Surplus lines insurers are a class of insurance companies whose pricing and policy terms are not controlled by state regulators in the same way that standard insurance companies are. They typically cover unusual or ultra-high-end risks that can be hard to quantify.

For instance, under the program — known as a “commercial lines clearinghouse” — a surplus lines insurer could put in an offer to cover a condo building that has either applied for new coverage from Citizens or that is already covered by the nonprofit insurer and wants to renew an existing policy.

If that were to happen, the condo building would be immediately rendered ineligible for coverage through Citizens, leaving the the condo association that manages it with little choice but to accept the surplus lines offer — even if that offer was more expensive. The condo association could only stay with Citizens if the surplus lines price was more than 15 percent higher than the quote from Citizens.

It’s not an entirely unprecedented idea. Citizens already runs a similar personal lines clearinghouse for homeowners seeking new or renewed coverage from the nonprofit insurer. And Florida lawmakers expanded that program in 2024 to allow some limited participation by surplus lines insurers, though none has yet taken out any homeowners’ policies.

What makes this proposed clearinghouse different is who would run it.

Citizens manages the personal lines program itself. But Senate Bill 1028 would require Citizens to hire an outside vendor to operate the commercial program.

That administrator contract is widely expected to go to the company that lobbied Senate Bill 1028 through Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature: Ryan Specialty, a Chicago-based insurance-services firm led by a billionaire GOP megadonor. Federal campaign finance records show that company founder and Executive Chairman Patrick Ryan and his wife have donated more than $50 million to Republican congressional candidates over the past five years.

Senate Bill 1028, it’s worth noting, was sponsored by Sen. Joe Gruters, a Republican from the Sarasota area who now plays a major role in national GOP fundraising as chair of the Republican National Committee.

Ryan Specialty didn’t just lobby for the bill, either; company executives helped write it. Seeking Rents obtained a draft of a late-session amendment that was eventually added to legislation that shows a senior executive Ryan Specialty directly editing the document.

A draft amendment to Senate Bill 1028 shows edits suggested by Mark Katz, the general counsel for Ryan Specialty.

Senate Bill 1028 doesn’t mention Ryan Specialty by name. But it would compel Citizens to give the clearinghouse administrator contract to a publicly traded company with expertise in the surplus lines market. Those are conditions that only a very small handful of companies could meet.

At the same time, it would make Citizens to get the program up and running very quickly — by the beginning of next year, at the latest. And Ryan Specialty has already developed an AI-based clearinghouse platform that it has been pitching to Florida officials, according to reporting by Insurance Journal.

This, ultimately, is what is behind a lot of the broader insurance industry’s opposition to Senate Bill 1028.

Because Ryan Specialty also sells surplus lines insurance — which would create an obvious conflict of interest if the company were also put in charge of the new Citizens clearinghouse.

The company could, for instance, use its position as administrator to steer business to its own network of surplus lines insurers. Or it could use its leverage to engage in predatory practices like squeezing extra fees out of unaffiliated insurers that want to participate the program.

“Empowering a single entity to operate the clearinghouse would create a significant structural market advantage, raising concerns about competition, access, and balance within the marketplace,” Al Geraci, the president of the Florida Surplus Lines Association, wrote in a March 11 email to members. “The restrictive requirements for qualifying as the administrator further complicate this issue, restricting the procurement process.”

In an interview, Geraci said that even if the new clearinghouse is run in good faith and everything is done by the book, the inherent conflict could still create the appearance of abuses. And that could ultimately backfire on the broader industry, by creating public pressure to more aggressively regulate surplus lines insurance.

“We are 100 percent for more private-market participation. Our concern is really the structure and how it’s set up,” Geraci said. “There’s some potential for perceived steering of business and anti-competitive practices.”

Of course, even beyond the risk of self-dealing and anti-competitive abuses, there’s the simple fact that Senate Bill 1028 will force an untold number of Florida condo owners to pay more for their property insurance.

That’s asking a lot right now, said Mel Montagne, an insurance broker in south Florida who specializes in condo and homeowner associations. Property insurance premiums have risen so sharply in recent years that they can now account for between 65 percent and 90 percent of a condo association’s total budget — which, ultimately, is funded by individual owners through their condo fees.

“My general feeling is, haven’t we had enough rate increases in the state of Florida — and now we’re going to give these guys the option to charge 15 percent above that?” Montagne said. “What’s the end game, to just drive people out of business?”

Ultimately, the fate of Senate Bill 1028 rests with Ron DeSantis, who will soon have to decide whether to sign or veto the legislation.

Ryan Specialty, which turned a $214 million profit last year, seems to be leaving little to chance. Records show the company recently put $750,000 into a pair of political committees controlled by some of its lobbyists in Tallahassee.

It’s impossible to trace where that money went from there because it was mixed in with funds from other clients and the committees then doled it out to dozens of politicians in Tallahassee.

But one of those same political committees recently gave $200,000 to the governor.

*To paraphrase Barbossa, five is more what you’d call a guideline than an actual rule.