Florida's Heritage Insurance Sees More Profits in Q1 This Year

Heritage Insurance Holdings Inc. (HRTG) on Wednesday reported earnings of $14.2 million in its first quarter of this year, about the same as earnings for Q1 of 2023, but down from the $31 million in net income reported for the fourth quarter of 2023.

The Tampa-based property and casualty insurance holding company is the parent company of Heritage Insurance, Narragansett Bay Insurance and Zephyr Insurance. The holding firm posted revenue of $191.3 million in Q1, up 8% from the first quarter last year, thanks in part to reduced exposure and to significant rate increases.

The firm’s combined ratio was 94% for Q1, a slight improvement over last year’s quarterly number, the company’s financial statements show.

The black ink reflects a significant improvement from the Heritage financial picture in 2021 and 2022, at the depths of what has been called the Florida property insurance crisis. At the end of Q1 2022, Heritage holdings reported a $31 million net loss.

Since then, a number of Florida insurers have seen a significant reduction in litigation expenses, a key metric behind the crisis. And Heritage has continued to reduce its exposure in Florida and other states. Heritage held 182,673 policies in Florida at the end of 2022 and 529,907 policies in all 17 states in which its subsidiaries write. By the end of the first quarter this year, the number of Florida policies had dropped to 147,9654. In all 17 states, policies in force fell to 436,955 — a drop of almost 18% in less than 18 months.

But the cutbacks were not across the board. Heritage said in a news release that it had increased its commercial residential premium significantly.

“As part of our exposure management strategy, we continue to grow our policy count in products and geographies which are profitable and reduce our policy count in unprofitable and over concentrated areas,” the release noted.

“The management team is resolute in our focus to generate underwriting profits across our footprint, maintain adequate rates, ensure selective underwriting, and employ meticulous but fair claims handling,” CEO Ernie Garateix said in a statement.

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