Property insurers have complained for years about roofers deliberately damaging roofs in order to file claims. But few have done what North Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance and the state’s Department of Insurance did: Set up a sting operation to catch bad actors in the act. That was one of the most-read and most important stories in the Southeast this year, but many other articles came close. Here are IJ’s top Southeast articles for 2025.
North Carolina Sting Operation Alleges Roofer Damaged Shingles to File Claim
The NCDOI and Farm Bureau this fall worked together on a sting operation in Wake County, setting up a “bait house,” then asking roofing companies to take a look, and recording the roofers’ actions, the DOI explained. The sting reportedly worked as intended. Authorities charged Robert Allen Bentley, 36, of Charlotte, a senior project manager with A&M Premier Roofing and Construction, on Dec. 10 was charged with insurance fraud after investigators allegedly observed him and a co-worker damaging and bending roof shingles at the house.
The roof company then claimed the damage was caused by wind and hail and attempted to gain $30,000 in an insurance claim with Farm Bureau, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey said in a statement. Farm Bureau leadership said the idea came up after “door knocker” roofers repeatedly urged homeowners in Raleigh and other cities to sign up for new roofs with little or no out-of-pocket expense. A&M said Allen was an independent contractor who is no longer with the firm.
Florida Meteorologist Predicts Where the Next Hurricane Will Hit, For a Price
Some in the industry had never heard of David Dilley. Others swear by what they say is his unusually accurate storm forecasts that predict when and which region of a coastal state will be hit. The cost is $400 per year.
Dilley and his Global Weather Oscillations website claim as much as 90% accuracy, sometimes calculated years in advance. And many of his 200 or so subscribers appear to be true believers, with 80% of them return customers. Dilley, who holds a master’s degree in meteorology from Rutgers University, argues that larger forces than man-made climate change are at work.
“It’s a natural cycle, not global warming,” he said.
He calls his modeling system ClimatePulse Technology, based on 150 years of weather data and thousands of years of geological data. The number of storms rises and falls on a 70-year cycle that is mostly influenced by electromagnetic and gravitational forces, including the interplay of the orbital cycles of the Earth, Sun and Moon, he said. Other cycles run for thousands of years and have an impact on temperatures, rainfall and more, Dilley said.
Don’t Look Now, But Citizens Is No Longer the Largest Property Insurer in Florida
Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-created insurer of last resort, in November announced it is no longer the largest carrier in Florida. The ranking is seen as a crucial milestone in the push for a more stable, market-based insurance system in the state.
Citizens’ leadership said that October takeouts and assumptions by other insurers had trimmed Citizens’ policy count to about 560,000 – a level not seen since spring of 2021, just before a litigation crisis worsened and multiple carrier insolvencies began to balloon Citizens’ exposure. By year’s end, the policy count is expected to be about 380,000, the lowest level in 20 years and well below the peak of 1.3 million policies in force in 2023.
The drop means Fort Lauderdale-headquartered Universal Property & Casualty Insurance and State Farm Florida Insurance by this fall had become the largest property insurers in Florida. Universal reported some 561,546 policies in Florida at the end of September. State Farm held some 646,429 policies at the end of August, according to the latest information from Florida regulators.
Did Florida Appeals Court Put the Final Nail in the AOB Coffin? Maybe
Almost five years after Florida lawmakers clamped restrictions on assignment-of-benefits agreements and two years after they effectively outlawed AOBs altogether, state appeals courts may have finally put an end to one creative way that had been used in attempts to get around the law.
Florida’s 5th District Court of Appeals in January upheld a Marion County judge’s ruling that an organization known as Holding Insurance Companies Accountable (HICA) had no standing to sue Tampa-based American Integrity Insurance Co. The case was one of several HICA had pursued for years against American Integrity and against Security First Insurance, two of the larger insurers in the state.
HICA argued in the appeal that it was not a contractor, only a service that advocated on behalf of homeowners. The AOB law, including its rules requiring an itemized listing of damage to the property, signed agreements, notices of intent to file suit, provisions to allow insureds to rescind the agreements, limits on attorney fees, and other provisions, did not apply, the organization said. But the courts held that HICA principals had pledged to give recovery from the lawsuits to a chosen roof contractor. That is the same as an AOB, the trial and appellate court judges noted.
Size of Florida’s Slide Insurance Exec Compensation Has Tongues Wagging
It was one of the most-talked-about initial public offerings by a Florida company – for all the wrong reasons.
When Tampa-based Slide Insurance registered for an initial public stock offering in June, one page of the filing stood out. On page 132 of the document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission it shows that Slide founder and CEO Bruce Lucas in 2024 took home more than $21 million in salary, bonuses and stock awards – considerably more than CEOs at most other publicly traded, Florida-domiciled carriers. The package is not far behind the compensation levels for the heads of some of the largest insurance companies in the world, including Chubb, Allstate, AIG and Travelers.
Lucas’ wife, Shannon Lucas, the chief operating officer at Slide, was paid an additional $16.5 million, Slide’s Form S-1 filing indicates.
“Capitalism is a great system, but this is out of control,” said one Florida insurance executive who declined to be identified.
Georgia Lawmakers Approve Major Tort Reform, Overhaul of Legal System
After Florida legislators in 2023 approved sweeping tort reforms designed to help stem what many had said was an excessive amount of opportunistic lawsuits, and after years of debate over lawsuit abuse across the country, Georgia leaders took action in early 2025.
In March, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan to limit lawsuits in Georgia received House approval, poising the state’s litigation landscape for a controversial overhaul after a lengthy lobbying campaign.
Supporters of the bill said it will stop “frivolous” suits that have damaged business owners, and limit large financial awards from juries. Opponents say it will prevent valid lawsuits from Georgians who were wronged, including victims of violence and sexual abuse.
The measure, passed in the House by a margin of 91-82, with a few changes from an earlier Senate version. The Senate then agreed to the changes and approved the measure.
In Alabama, Shot Employee Gets No Workers’ Comp and No Employer’s Liability
He was not covered by workers’ compensation insurance. But his course and scope of employment was enough for an employer’s liability insurance exclusion to apply, said the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which overturned a lower federal court ruling and left a severely injured convenience store employee with no recompense from the store’s insurance carrier.
The appellate court found in favor of State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., noting that the employer’s liability policy clearly excluded coverage for criminal acts or for injuries arising “out of and in the course of … employment.” The decision negated a lower court’s $1.3 million judgment against State Farm.
The shooting took place at the Pit Stop Grocery in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2016. The clerk, Amanali Babwari, closed the convenience store about 11 p.m. that night. As he walked to his car in the parking lot, a robber shot him nine times, took the store’s money bag, and disappeared. The worker survived but was severely injured.
Under Alabama law, employers with fewer than five employees are not required to secure workers’ compensation coverage. Only Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee allow coverage exemptions for firms with that many workers, according to the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute.
The 11th Circuit pointed out that State Farm’s employer’s liability exclusion wording is very similar to Alabama’s workers’ comp statute, which states that comp insurance covers injuries arising out of and in the course of employment, including incidents in the parking lot immediately after the work shift.
Mississippi Supreme Court Won’t Budge on $15M Bad-Faith Decision Against USAA
The Mississippi Supreme Court in October declined to reconsider its 2024 decision to uphold almost $15 million in punitive damages and attorney fees against USAA in one of the longest-running claims disputes to come out of Hurricane Katrina.
The court ruling, stemming from litigation brought by the prominent Minor family after the storm destroyed its 130-year-old Ocean Springs home, was deemed so important that a national property insurance group, a former Mississippi governor and business groups urged the court to reconsider. The Mississippi insurance commissioner also stepped in and filed his own amicus curiae brief with the court in support of USAA.
“I’ve been practicing 35 years and I’ve never seen a commissioner do that,” said David Baria, co-counsel for the Minor family in the case.
Commissioner Mike Chaney told Insurance Journal that he has authorized friend-of-the-court filings in other cases through the years. This time, he said he felt compelled to get involved to help protect the property insurance market in the state: Insurers don’t collect premiums for punitive damages, and such large verdicts can scare insurers away.
Two More Insurers Enter Florida Market as Hurricane Season Warms Up
It’s a sign of the times that most people in the Florida insurance world welcomed.
Two more property insurers put their toes in the Florida market this summer, bringing to 16 the number of new carriers in the state since 2023. It’s another sign that legislative discouragement of claims litigation has made a difference and has encouraged more competition in the state, Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky said.
The number of new insurance companies or new subsidiaries of existing carriers entering Florida since early 2023 now exceeds the number of property insurer insolvencies seen from 2020 to 2023, during the depths of the Florida property insurance crisis.
Public Adjusters Decry Florida Citizens’ New Plan That Keeps Their Names Off Checks
In the long conflict between insurance carriers and public claims adjusters, Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. unexpectedly altered the rules of engagement in a way that could have a big impact on some adjusters’ livelihood.
And a public adjuster group is mulling a potential legal challenge
“Nothing is off the table, and I can confirm that every avenue is being explored,” said Nancy Dominguez, managing director of the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters (FAPIA).
She was referring to the association’s recourse after a recent decision by Citizens officials to no longer include adjusters as co-payees on insurance claims payouts.
In October, FAPIA and a national association of public adjusters filed suit against a surplus lines insurer over endorsements that essentially forbid the use of public adjusters.
