While a number of Florida-domiciled property insurers have begun rebuilding their policy portfolios in the last 12 months, Tampa-based Heritage Insurance has continued to shed policies in recent years.
The selective underwriting strategy, along with other changes, appears to have made a difference: Heritage reported a Q2 profit of almost $62 million. That’s a 28.5% increase in net income for the second quarter of this year, compared to Q2 2025.
The company also posted a microscopic 65% combined ratio as of the end of June this year. That’s eight points lower than what the insurer reported at this time last year, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Several years ago, our focus was on improving profitability, strengthening the balance sheet, and reducing volatility in our financial results. Today, we are generating record earnings, producing substantial excess capital and beginning to see encouraging signs that the foundation we have built can support future growth,” CEO Ernie Garateix said in a statement posted last week.
He said Heritage has evolved into a stronger, more diversified and more resilient business as a super-regional insurance carrier.
The publicly traded insurer, ranked 21st-largest in Florida, reported 350,887 policies in force in Q2 2026, for all of the 17 states it writes in. That’s 5% fewer than seen in the second quarter last year, and almost a quarter-million fewer policies than Heritage held in 2021, at the worst of the Florida property insurance litigation crisis. The vast majority of Heritage policies are personal residential.
In Florida, the Heritage policy count has dropped from 241,581 in 2021 to just 112,304 in Q2 this year, according to SEC filings and Florida regulator reports.
Company-wide, net losses and loss-adjustment expenses, often seen as a reflection of litigation costs, dropped almost $15 million from last year at this time.
The company said it plans to stay the course for at least the rest of 2026 with selective underwriting and rate adequacy and by putting capital into products and geographic areas that promise to maximize long-term results.
“Despite the significant progress we have made over the last several years, we do not believe our current valuation fully reflects the strength of our earnings profile, the durability of our results, or the growth opportunities ahead,” Garateix said in the earnings statement. “As a result, we have repurchased more than one million shares of our common stock year to date because we believe our shares continue to trade below intrinsic value, while we are also still preserving substantial capacity to support future growth.”
Heritage’s latest SEC filing can be seen here.
Topics Florida Profit Loss
