Democratic candidates for chief financial officer and state attorney general vowed Tuesday to scrutinize the profits of Florida property insurers and provide more transparency to policyholders, calling for a crackdown on business models they say are driving up costs for Florida homeowners.
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Their press conference was the latest in a series of candidate commentary following reporting in the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel on a secret 2022 state-funded report that showed how insurers reported net losses while sending millions to related firms whose profits remained secret.
Annette Taddeo, a candidate for chief financial officer, and José Javier Rodríguez, a candidate for state attorney general, said Florida needs more aggressive oversight of the profits of insurers’ affiliated companies.
“This is supposed to be the Sunshine State,” Taddeo, a former state senator who served on the Banking and Insurance Committee, said at a news conference. “Let’s have real sunshine. Let’s show everybody everything so we can really bring down the cost of insurance.”
She called for a detailed report card for insurers that would provide consumers with information on claims handling and how much of their insurance premium goes to an insurers’ affiliated businesses.
They joined Democratic candidate for governor David Jolly in calling for action on the issue. Jolly said Monday that if elected he would take executive action to define what level of payments to affiliated sibling companies was “fair and reasonable.”
Such an executive action would make sure insurance companies don’t move excessive amounts of money to affiliates, a practice that could help them dodge Florida’s profit caps and rate regulations, Jolly said. He added he would support legislation to limit such payments and require insurance companies to make them public.
Insurers have long used affiliates to handle a variety of functions like underwriting, claims handling and information technology. The arrangements are legal, but payments between insurers and their affiliates must be fair and reasonable, a term that is not well defined in state statutes.
Looking at financial data from 2017 to 2019, a state-paid consulting firm found Florida property insurers claimed $432 million in losses in a three-year period, while paying fees to corporate affiliates of $1.3 billion, according to the news organizations’ analysis that excluded several outliers. The consultant also concluded 20 insurers were paying affiliates at a rate that it presumed to not be fair and reasonable. The firm, Risk & Regulatory Consulting, LLC compared the insurers’ net income, which is public, with that of their affiliates, which typically is not.
The news organizations uncovered that report and published it Friday.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky has described the report as a draft that “should never be relied upon as accurate.” Industry representatives have also pushed back on the study, questioning its methodology and premise.
Rodríguez said he would be aggressive in policing the industry if he’s elected attorney general and will work to get money back that has been “taken from policyholders in unfair or illegal ways.”
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“I will fight for policyholders,” he said. “That means fighting against insurance companies and that means fighting anybody in state government that is not in favor of lower rates.”
In written statements, representatives of Republican Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Attorney General James Uthmeier disputed claims that they haven’t fought to protect Florida insurance consumers.
“CFO Ingoglia has already supported and voted for greater transparency from property insurers, including disclosure involving affiliated entities,” said Yohana de la Torre, a spokeswoman for Ingoglia’s campaign.
While serving as a state senator in 2025, Ingoglia backed a proposal (SB 888) that would have required rate transparency reports for insurers be posted on a public website. Those reports would have included information on affiliate transactions, among other data points. That measure, though, did not pass.
Uthmeier took action in 2025 in response to allegations that Fort Lauderdale-based Universal Property & Casualty Co. “fraudulently” submitted ineligible claims for reimbursement to the state’s Hurricane Catastrophe Fund following Hurricane Irma, according to his office. While not admitting any wrongdoing, the company agreed to pay the $6.5 million to the state, according to the .
In a news release, Uthmeier’s office touted it “secured the return of more than $30 million” to the state’s hurricane fund. Universal Property & Casualty, though, disputed that account, saying it was never paid for those claims and had nothing to return. Most recently, Uthmeier sued a Naples-based construction company that he accused of taking money from homeowners and failing to perform repairs after hurricanes Ian and Milton, his office said.
“Anyone claiming he’s done nothing is knowingly and willfully ignoring the facts,” said Jeremy Redfern, Uthmeier’s deputy chief of staff.
In a social media post last week, Republican candidate for governor Byron Donalds also cited the news reports in calling efforts to hide insurers’ finances “unacceptable” and touting his own insurer scorecard for consumers. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment seeking additional details.
Donalds’ insurance platform calls for continuing the state’s efforts to cut down on excessive litigation, funding storm-hardening programs for homeowners, keeping the state’s insurer of last resort, Citizens, small and cutting red tape for rebuilding after storms.
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