The FIGA Assessment in Florida: What That 1% Line Is — and When It Ends
There’s a small line on nearly every Florida property insurance bill that most people have never had explained: the FIGA assessment. Here’s what it pays for, why it exists, and the date it comes off your bill.
The short answer
That small percentage line on your Florida home or property insurance bill — often labeled something like “FIGA Assessment Surcharge” — is a 1% emergency assessment that has funded the claims of insurance companies that failed, and it’s going away: FIGA announced that policies with an effective date of October 1, 2026 or later will no longer carry it. The mechanism matters, because it runs on your policy’s effective date, not the calendar: a policy that starts or renews on or before September 30, 2026 carries the 1% for that full policy term, while one effective October 1 or later doesn’t carry it at all. Nothing you need to do — the line simply won’t appear once your renewal falls on the far side of that date.
What FIGA actually is
FIGA — the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association — is the state’s statutory safety net for policyholders of admitted insurance companies that fail. Created by the Legislature in 1970 and codified at sections 631.50–631.70, Florida Statutes, it steps in when a court orders a member insurer liquidated: covered claims transfer to FIGA, which pays them subject to statutory caps, including refunds of unearned premium. By FIGA’s own accounting it has paid over $2.1 billion in claims to Florida policyholders in the last five years and refunded more than $620 million in unearned premiums over its history. Two details worth knowing: no tax dollars are involved — the law forbids state funds, so FIGA is financed by recoveries from failed insurers’ estates and by assessments on the insurance industry — and those assessments are what occasionally show up as the line on your bill.
Who FIGA does not protect
FIGA’s protection has edges, and they matter when you’re choosing where your policy lives. Surplus-lines (excess and surplus) policies are outside FIGA entirely — Florida law requires every surplus-lines policy to carry a stamped notice saying exactly that. Risk retention groups carry a similar statutory notice. And Citizens Property Insurance is its own case: Citizens policies are not FIGA-protected — the law exempts Citizens from FIGA membership and instead gives it its own backstop if it runs a deficit: first a surcharge of up to 15% on Citizens’ own policyholders, then emergency assessments on nearly every policyholder in the state. One wrinkle worth a raised eyebrow: Citizens policyholders still pay FIGA assessments — the law requires Citizens to pay FIGA assessments like any authorized insurer, and Citizens passes the charge through to its policyholders, even though FIGA protection doesn’t run to Citizens policies.
The line on your bill
Florida law requires assessment charges to be displayed separately on your premium statement — that’s why you can see the line at all — and FIGA recommends carriers label it “FIGA Assessment Surcharge.” On Citizens declarations pages it sits under “Mandatory Additional Charges.” The charge attaches once per policy term, based on your policy’s effective date during an assessment year; it isn’t premium, so it carries no commissions and no premium tax. One thing the statute is blunt about: not paying the surcharge is treated the same as not paying premium.
How it got here: 2021–2023
The recent history explains why the line has moved around. Between 2021 and 2023, eight Florida property insurers were ordered into liquidation (a ninth, Lighthouse, failed under a Louisiana order, with its Florida claims serviced by FIGA), and FIGA levied four assessments to fund their claims: a 0.7% regular assessment collected on policies effective in calendar 2022; a 1.3% assessment collected July 2022 through June 2023 after St. Johns failed; a second 0.7% collected on calendar-2023 policies for Southern Fidelity and Weston; and the 1% emergency assessment — the one ending with the October 2026 cutoff — levied in April 2023 after United Property & Casualty failed, the insolvency whose hurricane-era claims required bond financing. Depending on your renewal date in 2023, your bill briefly carried two of these at once. Since then the stack has burned down to that single 1% line.
October 1, 2026 — two years early
Here’s the part almost nobody reports: the October 2026 end isn’t the scheduled finish line — it’s two years early. The 1% emergency assessment backed bonds issued to pay hurricane-era insolvency claims and was originally set to run into 2028. In February 2026, FIGA’s board voted to terminate it because collections came in ahead of projections and — the quieter good news — no Florida carrier had been liquidated since February 2023, so the bond debt could be repaid ahead of schedule. FIGA’s own estimate puts the savings for Florida homeowners and businesses at up to $650 million over the two years the assessment won’t run.
The mechanism is effective-date-based, with no mid-term proration in either direction. FIGA will continue to collect the 1% on policies with effective dates through September 30, 2026 — a policy that renews on September 30 carries the line for that entire policy year, into fall 2027. A policy effective October 1, 2026 or later carries no part of this assessment. The wind-down itself refunds nothing on an in-force policy; the line simply doesn’t appear on the next policy term that starts on or after the cutoff. That’s also why two neighbors can compare bills in spring 2027 and see different answers — the one who renewed September 25 still has the line, the one who renewed October 5 doesn’t.
What it means at your renewal
If your policy renews on or after October 1, 2026, the FIGA line disappears from the bill — on that line item alone, roughly 1% of premium you’re no longer paying. Worth saying plainly: your total renewal can still move for all the ordinary reasons premiums move — coverage changes, your home’s characteristics, each carrier’s filed rates — so the assessment ending doesn’t guarantee a smaller bottom line; it guarantees the bottom line no longer includes that particular charge. Renewal is also the natural moment to re-shop the whole picture with your agent, so the comparison reflects every carrier’s current answer, not just the departing line item.
Could an assessment come back?
Could a line like this come back? The honest answer is that assessments follow insolvencies. The law caps what FIGA can levy — regular assessments at 2% per year and hurricane-emergency assessments at 4% — and the 1% emergency assessment is the only one on the books, with its end already scheduled. When the board voted in February 2026, no Florida carrier had been liquidated in three years. The practical takeaway for a homeowner is upstream of any assessment: the financial strength of the carrier holding your policy is part of what you’re buying. That’s a comparison input — we lay out how the rating system works, agency by agency, in our guide to Florida carrier financial-strength ratings, and profile the carriers we work with across our carrier hub. And if the worst does happen to a carrier, Florida’s playbook is written down — we walk through it step by step in what happens when a Florida home insurer goes out of business.
FIGA assessment FAQs
What is the FIGA charge on my Florida insurance bill?
It’s a 1% emergency assessment collected by the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association — the statutory safety net that pays claims when an admitted Florida insurer is liquidated. The current assessment, levied in 2023, funded bonds that paid claims from the 2021–2023 insurer failures. Law requires it to be shown as its own line, separate from premium.
When does the FIGA assessment end?
Policies with an effective date of October 1, 2026 or later no longer carry it. Policies effective through September 30, 2026 carry the 1% for their full policy term. FIGA’s board ended the assessment two years ahead of its original schedule after collections came in ahead of projections.
Do I get a refund of the FIGA surcharge already on my policy?
No — the wind-down is effective-date-based, not mid-term. A policy that started before October 1, 2026 keeps the surcharge it was issued with; the line simply doesn’t appear on your next policy term starting on or after that date.
Does Citizens charge the FIGA assessment too?
Yes. Florida law requires Citizens to pay FIGA assessments like any authorized insurer, and Citizens passes the charge through — it appears under “Mandatory Additional Charges” on Citizens declarations pages. Notably, Citizens policies themselves are not FIGA-protected; Citizens has its own statutory backstop of policyholder surcharges and emergency assessments.
Why isn’t there a FIGA charge on my auto policy?
All of the 2021–2023 assessments were levied on FIGA’s “All Other” account — homeowners, fire, flood written by private carriers, and similar property lines — not the auto account. Auto policies never carried these particular surcharges.
Who is not protected by FIGA?
Surplus-lines (E&S) policies — every one carries a stamped notice saying FIGA protection doesn’t apply — plus risk retention groups, and Citizens policies, which have their own separate statutory backstop. Workers’ compensation and several other lines fall outside FIGA under the statute.
Will my insurance bill go down 1% at renewal?
The FIGA line itself disappears for policies effective October 1, 2026 or later — that specific charge, roughly 1% of premium, is gone. Your total renewal can still move for the ordinary reasons premiums move, which is why renewal is a natural moment to compare the market rather than just read one carrier’s letter.
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