Kingsview CIO Scott Martin On Fox Weather Live – 7.25.25
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IAN OLIVER: With recovery efforts still ongoing from last hurricane season—and this one now ramping up—the pressure is only growing. Let’s talk about what this means for homeowners. We’re joined by Scott Martin, Chief Investment Officer at Kingsview Partners. Scott, it’s great to have you back with us. We know this has been such a layered issue, so we’ve been tackling it over the last couple of weeks. Now, we’ve talked about those impacts on property values. The latest data shows—an almost 300% jump in homeowner policies from 2018 to 2023 in Florida. What do these numbers tell you? Things are getting ugly?
SCOTT MARTIN: Certainly. You look at the numbers to really see what they are. You’re right—the 300% jump is reflective of basically a move from about 1% to 3.9%. There’s a jump, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not catastrophic to the point where everything will collapse overnight. Still, it’s a trend, Ian, like you said. Severe weather, floods—it started weeks ago. And truthfully, from my experience almost three years ago now with Hurricane Ian—which hit Fort Myers, Sanibel, and Captiva—Florida suffered Category 4 damage it had hoped to avoid for years. Insurers began struggling under replacement costs. Add to that the California wildfires, more hurricanes since Ian, floods in North Carolina, floods in Texas—you name it. Disasters are going up, home prices are flattening or falling, and insurers are in more trouble than ever. Frankly, homeowners don’t want to pay the higher rates insurers are now charging to protect themselves from these mounting losses.
IAN OLIVER: You mentioned the minutiae—it’s so complicated that it makes a lot of people’s heads spin. Meanwhile, in California, historic wildfires have pushed hundreds of thousands of policies into what’s called the state fair plan. Is that basically a policy of last resort?
SCOTT MARTIN: Yeah, unfortunately. And think about it—if you’re going to the state of California for insurance, you’re already in dire straits. Maybe your home was destroyed, you’re rebuilding, and insurers refuse coverage because they think the risk is too high. Even if they raise premiums enough to offset the risk, some insurers just leave entire states or territories—like we’ve seen in Florida after hurricanes. Sometimes new companies or banks step in, but in California, like in Florida with the Citizens Option, the fallback is a state-run program. Unfortunately, that’s where many homeowners are ending up—out of options in the private market.
IAN OLIVER: How localized are these insurance decisions? Can companies pick and choose at the neighborhood level?
SCOTT MARTIN: It depends on how precise they want to get in their risk analysis. They might narrow it to a street, an area, or an acreage, but usually they don’t make it that simple. The other reality is ironic—sometimes the areas without coverage get spared, and the insured areas get hit, which can blow up the entire insurance process. That’s been the pattern the last few years. Now, insurers are more risk-averse. If they don’t feel they’re getting the right premium for the level of risk, they just won’t take it. That’s when states step in—but if that becomes the norm, costs will keep climbing as long as natural disasters keep happening.
IAN OLIVER: And those non-renewal numbers are concerning. We’d hope that after years of high-impact weather, most homeowners would be made whole. But without adequate coverage—or being underinsured—we could be in real trouble as more events unfold. We’ll be watching it closely. Scott, thank you for your insight and analysis. That’s Scott Martin, Chief Investment Officer at Kingsview Partners.
