The cost of a surplus-lines homeowners’ policy in Florida is now about the same as admitted-market HO policies, reflecting the growing trend for excess and surplus firms across the state and beyond, recent reports show.
The Florida Surplus Lines Service Office, which tracks numbers for the E&S market, reported this week that the average premium for a Florida HO-3 policy in the surplus lines market had fallen below $3,500 for April, marking a new low.
“It highlights how the surplus lines market continues to respond to homeowner needs and provide meaningful coverage options for Floridians,” Mark Shealy, FSLSO executive director said in a statement.
The numbers show a steady decline since the 2022-2023 Florida legislative reforms and the recent removal of the diligent effort requirement, the office noted. The diligent effort change is the result of Florida legislation approved in 2025, which repealed rules that required insurance agents to obtain at least three written declinations from admitted carriers before turning to the surplus market. That has made it easier for some agents to place E&S policies, agents have said.
Depending on who’s doing the calculations, the FSLSO HO average is now just above or below the average premium reported for most admitted Florida property insurance companies that write homeowners’ coverage. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation reported that as of last summer, the average annual premium was about $3,300. Bankrate and other surveys have pegged the average at much higher levels.
An analysis by Insurance Journal, based on quarterly data reported by Florida carriers to OIR, shows that for the 16 largest admitted insurers, the average premium for personal residential policies was about $3,066 early this year. The cost decrease was credited to the legislative reforms that stemmed excessive claims litigation, and the entry of more than a dozen new insurers into the Florida market in the last three years.
The FSLSO report showed that surplus lines’ HO policy count is still relatively small—about 21,300 in April. But that’s a 70% gain over April 2025, the office noted.
Commercial policies also continued to grow as premiums have fallen. Commercial property policy counts for surplus carriers rose by 39% compared to April 2025. The average premiums for those types of policies dropped by 39% in the one-year span, FSLSO noted.
The growth may reflect rising acceptance of surplus lines’ policies across the country, particularly for commercial property. The U.S. is seeing a “massive move” to surplus lines in the last two years, so much that it has caught some state regulators off guard, said Nathan DauSchmidt, assistant vice president of strategy and innovation with Great American Insurance Group.
Speaking at the Insurance Innovators USA conference in Nashville this week, DauSchmidt said recent reports show surplus lines’ commercial coverage has jumped by 30% in the last two years. At a previous insurance gathering, at least one insurance commissioner said he was “astounded” to see that, DauSchmidt said.
The FSLSO report can be seen here.
Top chart: Source: FSLSO
Topics
Florida
Excess Surplus
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