{"id":143565,"date":"2026-02-04T16:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/143565\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:55:13","slug":"the-affiliate-siphon-myth-meets-cold-hard-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/143565\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018affiliate siphon\u2019 myth meets cold, hard math"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Maybe you read\u00a0my\u00a0last opinion<\/a> on trial lawyers targeting insurance affiliates.<\/p>\n

The Trial Bar claims there\u2019s a secret machine causing your home insurance premiums to rocket. They\u2019ve labeled it the \u201caffiliate siphon.\u201d They stood on the courthouse steps, calling affiliated entities performing service work for insurers part of a \u201cdark ritual\u201d to hide profits, while premium payers suffered.<\/p>\n

But a funny thing happened on the way to the apocalypse. Legislated tort reform put the kibosh on frivolous lawsuits, and rates went down. Oops!<\/p>\n

And\u00a0the\u00a0drop was substantial.<\/p>\n

According to data from the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), Florida rates went down, while 33 other states saw double-digit increases. Data show that of 185 residential rate filings in Florida, none were for increases. None! Even Citizens Property Insurance Corporation \u2014 the state\u2019s insurer of last resort \u2014 was ordered to reduce its rates.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, things are looking good enough that 17 additional insurers are now giving Florida\u2019s homeowners market a go.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s home insurance market is doing something disingenuous that trial lawyers promised (hoped) it never would. It\u2019s healing. For the first time in a decade, the lawsuit lobby\u2019s synchronized wailing sounds more like a transparent attempt to point fingers at others.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0rate\u00a0filing reality check<\/p>\n

The trial bar\u2019s narrative\u00a0is typical\u00a0and\u00a0simple:\u00a0\u201cInsurers aren\u2019t losing money; they\u2019re just moving it to their sister companies!\u201d<\/p>\n

If that were true \u2014 if these affiliate structures were just a one-way valve for \u201cdisappearing\u201d money \u2014 then insurance rates wouldn\u2019t come down as they are. Why would a \u201cshadowy cabal\u201d ever stop siphoning? And why would so many insurers declare bankruptcy to end the largesse?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

OIR data\u00a0recently\u00a0published by\u00a0the\u00a0Governor\u2019s\u00a0Office<\/a> is incontrovertible. Since the historic legislative reforms popped the litigation balloon, Florida\u2019s market hasn\u2019t just stabilized \u2014 it has pivoted. And other states are beginning to take notice.<\/p>\n

Who gets\u00a0the credit?<\/p>\n

Trial lawyers were more than happy to blame affiliated entities for the\u00a0hikes. So, where is the press release giving them credit for the\u00a0drops?<\/p>\n

By keeping functions in-house, Florida insurers have been able to pass tort reform savings to consumers faster than a fragmented third-party model could.<\/p>\n

The fact is, the trial bar never cared about the accounting. They cared about their litigation schemes (assignment of benefits and one-way attorney fees) that paid for the high-octane fuel in their private jets. When lawmakers finally cut the fuel line, trial lawyers didn\u2019t admit they were the problem. They misdirected \u2014 pointing fingers instead of the decades-old, proven affiliate model.<\/p>\n

Affiliate entities are the solution, not the problem<\/p>\n

The companies that use affiliated entities are often the same ones currently leading the charge on rate decreases. Why? When the litigation tax was removed, these efficient companies were the first to have the \u201croom\u201d in their budgets to lower premiums.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0ironic bottom line<\/p>\n

The trial lawyers are currently in a difficult spot. It\u2019s hard to whine about \u201csiphoning\u201d affiliates \u201chiding all the money\u201d while they reduce rates. Nor can they celebrate rate decreases from tort reforms that shut down their own ATM.<\/p>\n

Therein lies\u00a0the irony\u2013turns out the\u00a0bogeyman trial lawyers have been pointing\u00a0at\u00a0all this time\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0an \u201caffiliate\u00a0siphon\u201d \u2026\u00a0it was\u00a0a mirror!<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Scott Johnson, AAI, CAE, is an independent consultant, expert witness and author of five books. His latest book (available <\/a>on Amazon<\/a>) details abusive attorney practices and is titled\u00a0 \u201cCollapse of an Evil Empire<\/a>.\u201d Please visit johnsonstrategiesllc.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maybe you read\u00a0my\u00a0last opinion on trial lawyers targeting insurance affiliates. The Trial Bar claims there\u2019s a secret machine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[69644,18374,28,30,69645,29,21638,69646,15656,69647,69648,69649,69650,69651,69652,58109,69653,69654],"class_list":["post-143565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-assignment-of-benefits","tag-citizens-property-insurance-corporation","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-insurance-rates","tag-florida-news","tag-governors-office","tag-home-insurance-market","tag-homeowners-insurance","tag-insurance-affiliates","tag-lawsuit-abuse","tag-office-of-insurance-regulation","tag-oir","tag-one-way-attorney-fees","tag-rate-filings-florida","tag-tort-reform","tag-tort-reform-florida","tag-trial-lawyers-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}