Tightening ties with Bermuda, is a part of the Florida Insurance Commissioner’s strategy to improve the insurance industry in his state.

Mike Yaworsky said his office was maintaining “fantastic” conduits of communication with Bermuda, the Bermuda Monetary Authority and reinsurers here who are active in Florida.

He was speaking at the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurer’s Risk Forum in a panel on Florida’s property insurance market and its relationship with Bermuda’s reinsurance sector.

“I love the resiliency of Bermuda,” Mr Yaworsky told The Royal Gazette. “The global regulatory process is making sure that we learn from each other. We are bringing best practices home and also making ourselves available for other jurisdictions to learn from as well.”

Panellist Shanna Lespere, deputy chief executive of the Bermuda Monetary Authority said Bermuda’s relationship with Florida is a longstanding one.

The formation of the island’s insurance industry is tightly linked to Florida’s catastrophe history.

“The industry really took off in Bermuda post Hurricane Andrew in 1992 when there was a dislocation in the market,” Ms Lespere said. “It was really important that Bermuda was there for Florida and we continue to grow with each other.”

She said the data and experience generated from long‑running Florida exposures fed directly into the BMA’s supervisory and capital frameworks, strengthening Bermuda’s credibility with international standard‑setters, investors and rating agencies.

“The relationship has given us an opportunity, from a Bermuda and BMA perspective, to provide a unique data set of information,” Ms Lespere said. “That has strengthened our supervisor and regulatory frameworks.”

Panellists also discussed how Florida’s recent litigation reforms have reshaped its property insurance market and restored reinsurer confidence.

For years, Florida accounted for a disproportionate share of American property claim litigation.

In 2019 the state generated about 8 per cent of all US property claims but an estimated 76 per cent of all US property claim litigation — a distortion Mr Yaworsky attributed to a long‑standing statutory rule on attorneys’ fees.

Under that rule, if a policyholder sued an insurer and recovered even one dollar more than the insurer’s initial offer, the insurer was automatically liable for the policyholder’s legal fees.

Mr Yaworsky said this had encouraged bad actors to litigate early and often regardless of the underlying merits, with the ultimate pay-off flowing to lawyers rather than consumers.

In 2022 and 2023 Florida enacted new policies to tackle these issues.

One-way attorney fees for property claims were eliminated to remove assignment of benefits, introduce a 90-day safe harbour for bad faith lawsuits and reduce Citizens Property Insurance Corporation’s exposure.

The CPIC is Florida’s state-backed, not-for-profit insurer of last resort created by the Florida Legislature in 2002.

“The reforms in 2022 and 2023 were designed to restore rationality to our marketplaces, especially when it came to that interaction point between insurers and litigants,” the Commissioner said.

“We moved towards the same litigation framework that exists in 49 other states and that made all the difference in the world.”

With litigation down around 40 per cent in Florida compared to two years ago, Mr Yaworsky believes they are working.

He was cautiously optimistic about this year’s hurricane season.

“We are seeing some good news about El Niño trends for Florida and the tropics,” he said. “But we don’t know. That is what this business is all about: making sure we have the resources, that our consumers are protected and that we have coverage at the worst hour.”