Citizens Taps Interim Prez

Citizens Property Insurance Corp.’s board of governors Monday voted unanimously to appoint Tom Grady as interim president.

Grady will start the job at CPIC Monday. He will replace Scott Wallace, who will remain with the Florida insurer until April 6 to facilitate the transition.

Grady, currently is the commissioner of the Office of Financial Regulation, will resign from that post.

“It is important that we maintain continuity of the board’s business plan as we embark on a national search for a permanent replacement for Mr. Wallace,” said board chairman Carlos Lacasa.

“Mr. Grady has graciously agreed to step in on short notice and lead the administration on an interim basis while we implement initiatives aimed at reducing the size and exposure of Citizens,” he added.

During his legal career, Grady fought financial fraud, representing consumers and investors in disputes with securities brokers, investment advisors, insurance companies, banks and others in the financial industry. He is a former state representative.

Citizens is a state-created nonprofit corporation that provides property insurance in areas of Florida where private insurers offer no coverage, particularly areas at high risk from hurricanes and other storm damage. CPIC is funded by premium revenue, reinsurance, and borrowing from the capital markets.

On Monday, a bill that would have allowed unregulated insurers to remove policies from Citizens was believed to be dead when the House failed to agree with amendments by the Senate.

HB 245 was touted as a measure to reduce the size of Citizens, the state’s largest insurer with 1.4 million policies.

If Citizens needs to pay claims, it can assess a premium on the policies of most property and casualty policies, including those outside of Citizens.

Opponents of the bill feared policyholders would not understand the risks of going with an unregulated insurer, which include not being covered by the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association.

FIGA is an entity that provides a failsafe mechanism for overseeing the claims payments of insolvent insurance companies.

Citizens’ bonds are rated in the single-A category.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Florida
MORE FROM BOND BUYER