State regulators moved forward Thursday with placing United Property & Casualty Insurance Co. into receivership after higher-than-expected losses from Hurricane Ian helped push the insurer into insolvency, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Interim Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworksy sent a letter to state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis to trigger a process that will lead to seeking court approval to place the St. Petersburg-based insurer into receivership, according to documents posted on the Office of Insurance Regulation website. United Property & Casualty agreed to the move. United Property & Casualty has faced deep financial problems for months, including announcing in August that it would exit Florida’s troubled homeowners’ insurance market. Tampa-based Slide Insurance Co. on Feb. 1 picked up 72,000 of United Property & Casualty’s policies. In a Feb. 10 filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, parent company United Insurance Holdings Corp. said United Property & Casualty was expected to be placed into receivership because of insolvency.
