Citizens reports nearly 77,000 claims from three 2024 storms and outlines closures, payouts

Tim Serio, executive director of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, told the Senate Committee on Banking and Insurance that Citizens has seen substantial depopulation, but remained busy responding to three 2024 hurricanes and managing claim closures and payments.

Citizens’ headline figures

- Policy counts and projections: Serio said Citizens ended 2024 with 936,182 policies and approximately $386 billion in total insured value (TIV). Citizens forecasted ending 2025 with about 771,000 policies and a lower TIV near the figure shown in the presentation. - Claims and payments from three storms (as of Jan. 7): Citizens reported 76,625 total first notices of loss across Hurricanes Debbie, Helene and Milton and said it paid roughly $823,000,000 in indemnity and expenses to date. - Per storm counts and paid indemnity reported by Citizens: Debbie — 3,077 claims and about $19,000,000 paid; Helene — 14,777 claims and nearly $100,000,000 paid; Milton — 58,771 claims and roughly $704,000,000 paid.

Closures and reasons

Serio provided a closure breakdown: of the 76,625 claims, 68,097 had been placed in closed status; 33,453 were closed with a payment and 34,645 were closed without a payment. Among claims closed without payment, Citizens reported:

- 12,928 closed because the loss fell below the hurricane deductible (Citizens said it encourages policyholders to file even if a loss appears below the deductible so subsequent events can be combined). - 10,665 closed for “no coverage” on the merits, including flood-only losses (Citizens emphasized that wind coverage applies under homeowner policies; flood/storm‑surge is typically a separate NFIP/federal flood matter). - 11,062 closed for miscellaneous administrative reasons (duplicate filings, insured covered by another carrier, withdrawals, inability to reach the consumer, etc.).

How Citizens is responding

Serio described pre‑ and post‑landfall outreach (emails, texts, press releases), catastrophe-response centers and on‑site adjusters. For the three storms Citizens opened 16 catastrophe response centers, deployed roughly 2,311 field staff and assisted 3,541 policyholders on site; it also issued about 1,419 additional‑living‑expense checks totaling about $5 million.

Surplus, depopulation and assessment risk

Serio described a combined‑accounts strategy (combining Citizens’ personal, commercial and coastal accounts) enacted after the 2023 reforms. He said the combined structure reduced the chance of policyholder surcharges and statewide assessments: using the 2024 layer chart, he said the combined accounts would have required an event of roughly 1‑in‑73 years to trigger a surcharge and about 1‑in‑82 years to trigger an assessment, whereas previously a much smaller storm could have started a surcharge process.

Depopulation data and takeouts

Citizens reported large depopulation in 2024: about 487,000 policies and about $215 billion in TIV were removed from Citizens through takeout in 2024, and the corporation expects around 300,000 policies to be removed through depopulation in 2025. Serio said new business into Citizens also slowed in 2024 (fewer than expected monthly incoming policies late in the year), an indication that more homeowners are finding private-market coverage without first entering Citizens.

Home hardening / mitigation impact

Citizens ran model estimates for mitigation credits on policies that filed claims during the storms and estimated mitigation reduced modeled losses by about 8% for Debbie (Cat 1), 11% for Helene (Cat 4) and 24% for Milton (Cat 3) on the subset of policies that had mitigation credits and filed claims.

Audit and transparency

Serio said he asked Citizens’ chief of internal audit to review claims denials and closures for Debbie, Helene and Milton; the audit is intended to verify the accuracy of Citizens’ data and is expected to conclude by the end of January. He emphasized Citizens has statutory oversight and a governing board and said the company has an incentive to pay valid claims promptly.

Quotes from the hearing

- “The reforms passed by the legislature… basically brought the industry back from the brink of collapse,” Serio said of the 2022–23 law changes. - Serio: “We ask ourselves… are we promoting depopulation? Are we enhancing the customer experience? Are we preventing the likelihood of an emergency assessment?”

Unresolved questions and committee requests

Senators asked for more granular breakdowns of closed‑no‑coverage reasons and requested Citizens separate the consumer‑expectation types (for example, pool screens; wear and tear; flood-only) so the committee can identify where misunderstandings or denials are concentrated. Serio agreed Citizens can provide more detailed breakdowns to the committee and said the internal audit will further validate the closure categories.

Ending

After the presentation senators continued questioning on claims that were closed without payment and on data equivalence between Citizens and the private market; Serio offered to provide additional data and to meet with offices and constituents to discuss specific claims.