Welcome to our blog series, "Everything Seaplace", where we uncover the hidden gems and captivating stories of Seaplace.
To see all of our great episodes please go to:
www.teamrenick.com/everything-seaplace
Join me, Mike Renick, in a riveting discussion with Mike Angers from Brown and Brown Insurance. We delve into the challenging yet successful journey of ensuring full coverage for Seaplace amidst a tough insurance market in Sarasota and Manatee counties. 🏠💼
🔍 Key Highlights:
The dramatic increase in insurance costs and how we navigated it
The significance of new roofing and its impact on insurance
Future outlook on insurance in our area and steps to stay ahead
👷♂️ From inheriting a crucial roof project to executing it flawlessly, we showcase the power of proactive community management. Plus, we explore the critical role of impact-resistant features in securing favorable insurance terms. 🛠️💡
Don't miss out on this insightful episode as we prepare for the next insurance renewal and share our strategies for maintaining Seaplace as a premier destination.
#EverythingSeaplace #RealEstateInsights #InsuranceChallenges #CommunityManagement #LongboatKey #SarasotaRealEstate #ManateeCounty #StayInformed
Keep Living the Seaplace Dream!
Full Video Transcript:
Hi everyone. Welcome to another edition of "Everything Seaplace". My name is Mike Renick. I am your host for this. I appreciate everyone watching. I have a special guest, Mr. Mike Angers.
Mike your title, - Brown and Brown Insurance Senior Vice President. - So, Mike is the broker of Record for Seaplace. We worked close together in the past year to bring us to where we are. I thought it would be good to just take a few minutes and chat about maybe where we must head the market.
If I had to pick an adjective it and let me know if you agree is challenging - Challenging's a good safe one. Okay. - Yes. And we could think of a lot of other words. Yes. So, we went through a part where insurance was $700,000 a couple of years ago. It went up to 3.4 and then through some significant work here, we have been able to get some big savings with that. So, as we look at this thing going forward though, in a few months we will be back into the fray.
All right, now at Seaplace. We are in better shape. We ended up with full coverage. You have shared there's properties on the islands that could not get full coverage.
Correct. And so, we, we got all that behind us. We have, is it safe to say the newest? I am from Michigan, so roofs on the Island.
You do. You are right there. But a lot of people are changing them because that is the hot topic right now. Roofs are the number one concern for the insurance carriers right now. So, you did the right thing by putting on the new roofs. Put yourself in the best position possible for the insurance marketplace.
And, and we were lucky because this board that I am a member of, we inherited the roof project from the board before they got it started. We brought it over the finish line.
But so, all of that is behind us. What is your outlook going forward? What are the things we need to have a discussion with the owners, with you, our broker as we look at insurance in the future? -
Well, let me start off by saying last year's marketplace was the worst I have ever seen it. We are, we were seeing things last year that we have never seen before. I have been doing condominium insurance in Sarasota, Manatee County for 29 years. Worst by far. I mean hands down. The marketplace went crazy, and a lot of the carriers left the state. So, we had a very challenging renewal, not just for you all, but for everyone out on the islands. There was question early in the process was April or so when we, you know, started looking at this heavily if we were going get full coverage because a, you know, associations that I was just renewing on the islands, some of them were not. And that is the first time ever.
See that is the thing that kept me up at night more than anything else at Seaplace is the fact that we have some unit owners that are mortgaged and if we do not provide full coverage then I do not even know what the then means. I do not want to find that out if we cannot provide that. Right. But, but with your help Brown and Brown and your help, we brought it over the finish line.
We did bring it over the finish line, and I tell you it, it is a tribute. And I am not just saying this because you are sitting here, but to the board pushing the roofer.
Well, it is okay though. It is okay. I can give you some credit. - I did not have anything - To do with it.
Your board and your team pushing the roofers. They did and the roofing company did a great job of getting it done in an extremely tough market because you were there in line with all the other associations out there needing to get their roofs done. If we did not get our roof project completed, we more than likely, I would say probably 90% chance would not have had full coverage.
So, the good news is we have that, we have full coverage, we are working hard for some significant cost savings. I will have more to say on that down the road without reducing coverage. So, we will, we will see where that ends up. But let us talk about, so next August we have another renewal that is not that far away. What do we have to do and what are some of the, well let me ask it this way. Is the market starting to recover a little bit in our favor?
Yes, - So I am, I am finally, the market was going like this a steep hill for probably 18 months. I am just now starting to see it level off and plateau a little bit. Now it is not going back down, do not get me wrong, but it is, it is not that steep incline. So, what that means is a couple more carriers are starting to come in the state. They are starting to feel more comfortable that the laws in Florida are going to protect them. And that is the reason they all left. They were not getting any protection. So, they said we are not making money in Florida. Return on the investment is horrible. You know what the hurricanes and then all these lawsuits were out of here now we have fixed that through legislation that was passed in December of 2022 and effective in January of 2023, they are getting comfortable. They come back in and then you get the competition again. So, the good - And we had no competition this - Past year. There was no comp. We were trying, we were trying as hard as we could to get in the state pool and let it, let us be clear here, the state pool everyone thinks is the avenue of last resort. You think you can just get right in and years ago you could, anybody could get in the state pool and if you read their mission statement it says provide temporary placement for people that cannot find it elsewhere. Well, that is not the case. Correct? Yes. You ever see Allstate; they say you are in good hands but then they remove the hands. I understand. Well, the state pool, you, you think they are going to cover you, but they were declining, you know, a ton of business. So, we had a big challenge to, a big push to get our roofs done, to get compliance and to get full coverage and we succeeded.
Now moving forward, there has been two carriers in the last eight months that do buildings like this, big buildings that - Have come back - In, that have come back in. Okay, does that mean we are going to be moving out of citizens next year? I do not know if that does, but it helps. Could - We potentially be a candidate for those? - You could with the new roof’s companies without new roofs, they would not even look at you.
Okay. So, I know we were discussing before they say, you know what can you do better out here at Seaplace? Think to yourself, you are on the Gulf of Mexico, you just got new roofs. I say your concrete buildings on the side, your roofs are redone. The only thing, and we talked about this, and it is a big deal because I just did it at my house, it’s a real big deal is impact glass outside of making the buildings a hundred percent impact. You have done everything possible at this point to put yourself in the best position. Now the market turns. So, if the market turns and we have a bad hurricane season, I am not a miracle worker. I do a lot of good things. But we do, if there is nowhere to go and there are no tools in the shed for me to go to, we are in trouble.
But from our standpoint, what we can do and what we did last year and working together we are in the best possible position to market yourself going into August.
So, a continued focus on the, what I call hurricane glass is important. Now what we are doing here is, the discussions we are having is Longboat key would allow someone to put new glass on that's not hurricane rated as long as they have the shutters.
So, we are looking here in the numbers I have out of our 461 units and these numbers are a little bit old so they may be better. We have two hundred owners that already qualify out of the 461 and we had 60 a couple of months ago in process. So, we are making good progress. But what I am hearing right now is that we need to keep our focus on that. We need to make the buildings hardened. Is that correct? -
A hundred percent. If you, if you want to say, Hey Mike, I want to put we because the building, you are going to live here. I mean you are going to live. That is why I did mine. I said to my wife, I live east of 75 in Sarano, I am going to live there, I am going to die there. I said, what do I need to do for myself to make sure I am comfortable and get the best situation? I put impact glass in these buildings are concrete. I mean you are you are not going move them. The new roofs are there. So, to seal the envelope of the building, that last piece of the puzzle and I know it is a big deal, but - So here is, that is what you need to do. Here is the challenge and this is not rehearsed,
Mike does not know I am going to ask this, and I do not expect Mike to be able to answer this thing. Okay? So, I want to stretch out the impact glass and the front door project as long as possible to make it more palatable for the owners. But there may be a day coming when the insurance company says, if you do not have this, my new company will not take you. How do we balance that decision? I am not asking for the date, right, because it does not exist. How do I balance that as, as a Seaplace leader?
Yes, - You, you take a look at it. I mean it is a huge expense. I know it and it is going to get more expensive. because if I would have done it three years ago, I would have saved myself like half. And it is the what if. Because if you do not do it soon, you are going to be saying, oh we should have done it. Now the key is this, we could get there because the cure is beat to their own drums. They will decide. If I am a carrier and I write in Florida, I can say, you know what now I only want impact glass and do you know what, I will fill my buckets because there are enough people that have impact glass somewhere along Florida lines. So, you want to be in that bucket with those carriers. - Yes, because they do not have, what I hear is they do not have to take it. They are going, they do not, they are going get their full book of business with the, the type of association wants. - They're cherry want. They are cherry picking. So, if you are cherry picking, if you own an insurance agency and you are in it to make money, they are in it to make money. Sure. What are you going do? You are going look for new roofs because that is important. The concrete's concrete. What else is going secure that? Building the Impact labs.
So, the big focus, and we are working hard on that right now to try to do what is fair for the owners will be the glass and the front doors. Is there anything else we need to look at as we move forward to have us in the best shape? - I think the rest of it we have done, you know we have worked on this program for years, you are in great shape everywhere else except for, and again, you are in great shape on top of it. But if you want, you are an A, if you want the A+ you get those impact glass. Other than that, you cannot move the buildings, you cannot change the construction of them or the height of them. It is what it is there. That is the only missing piece to get you to that A+ situation. –
So, what I want to do is balance what is fair to the owners and want to be in a position to have as many insurance companies knocking on your door for us.
Now let us be clear too, I want to be clear. Once you put these windows in, it is not a save all, it is, it is not like you are getting 50% credit off your premiums. It is not that way. It is a matter of that puts you in the best position. That opens a couple of carriers that would not look at you prior that literally have guidelines. So, you know, you may get insurance one year where you would not get it or you may get, you know, a carrier to look at you that would not even turn your way. So, it just gives you that extra reward, that best position possible.
And one of the interesting things, I am going deviate for a second, was surprising to me the way it works in Florida, it is something I had never been exposed to before. But down here we do not go at Seaplace and pick insurance carriers to bid. We pick a broker, and that broker is then authorized. You are, you are not allowed to get any numbers until you are our broker of record, which you are. But until that happens, so you cannot go out, let us say you bid and Tommy bids and Sue bids and all that kind of stuff that, that cannot happen because you cannot get numbers right at that point. So, it is kind of backwards a little bit. There is a term I use, I will not use it on film to describe that, but so that, that's kind of the dilemma as we go forward.
So, I wanted to come back and just share here in terms of where we have come as an Association. We may have a big announcement coming forward. We are trying to solidify a major savings. It looks like it is going happen. I am not going to put a number on it until we go through the inspection period. But I feel comfortable about that. But right now, our focus on the board has left that we are now focused on what do we do as we go forward. And what I am hearing, no matter who I talk to, it is the hurricane glass. It is the hurricane shutters, our front door project. We should see some design solutions in the next couple of weeks and then we can put them in front of the owners. because we must choose one, one design for that. And then we can start talking about doors. So, the board is focused on that kind of stuff.
There is no timeline that has been laid out by the board right now. We are really trying to do the right thing. So, as we move forward, what I am learning from you is that the focus we have is the right focus. - Correct. We got you in line. - Okay. Anything else, Mike that would be intriguing to our owners on this topic?
No, I think that, you know, you just got to have hope and realize that we are in Florida, and it is going be wacky. You pay for to live in the paradise and remember, do not shoot the messenger. I am just - Realize that I do not necessarily agree with that. But go ahead. - They've tried to shoot me before but then they realize I am on your team. Yes. So, my job is to find the best program for you and work with your team. And I can tell you what, we put in a ton of work last year to get you in the position. And like Mike said, there is probably some good news forthcoming, which you do not hear often in insurance. So, this, I mean this is a one in a million in the last 24 months. I am not delivering any good news. So, we are working to do the best job for you.
And Mike, I want to, I appreciate it. I want to thank you for everything that you have done. Appreciate it. This is a team effort. We would not be at this point without some, some couple strong board members. I am going single out Alan Zuckerman and Kirk Baker. We are going to have more. I am going to come back, and we are going interview those folks. And those are the two. I want to share the big announcement when the cost savings is official. So that is coming very soon.
Confetti, yes, popcorn, diet coke. For folks that know me, that is my drink of choice, but we, I am happy with where we are headed. But the thing is, the work is not done. We have more to do. And here is another thing I have asked Alan who is chairing our insurance committee, and he is agreed. We are going to sit down and with, with you and we want to have a discussion on the bad word called deductibles because maybe it makes some sense to change it. You know, I will, I will make up an absurd case here if I can save, if I can raise my deductible 10,000 and save fifteen on my insurance premium, I want to do that.
Not feasible, but we are going have that discussion. I want to go through all the deductibles we have and make an informed decision. Like when I buy car insurance every year, I retake a look at my deductibles. Car insurance is so much easier and simpler than buying association insurance. Yes, it is. So more to follow again, Mike. Thank you. I want to shake your hand one more time. No problem. You have been a big part of this thing. I appreciate it. Thanks for watching.
Stay tuned if you have any questions. My personal, my direct cell is 941-400-8735. Take care everyone.
