TALLAHASSEE, Florida — A Florida property insurer that has been a substantial donor to Florida Republicans has agreed to pay a $1 million fine over how it handled claims from Hurricane Ian, the massive storm that ripped into the state nearly two years ago.
State regulators found Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance violated Florida’s insurance code, including failing to pay or deny claims within a required 90-day period and failing to acknowledge it received communications about claims.
This is the largest fine handed down by state regulators in more than a decade. The last time regulators issued a fine this high was in 2013, when the state fined Universal Property and Casualty Insurance $1.26 million, according to Samantha Bequer, a spokesperson for Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky.
Heritage CEO Ernie Garateix said in a statement that his company had “fully complied” with the market conduct examination into how it handled Hurricane Ian claims from September 2022 — when the storm hit — to February 2023, and that it had taken “significant action to address those concerns in order to better serve our policyholders.”