December 22, 2025 • 10 mins
Heritage Insurance is based In Tampa, Florida.
Offering home, condo, rental property, and commercial residential insurance through a large network of experienced independent agents. Their team is committed to providing homeowners with the highest-quality property insurance and some of the most competitive rates in Gulf Coast states and California.
They also operate Narragansett Bay Insurance in the Northeast and Zephyr Insurance in Hawaii
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time now for our CEO spotlight here on the Ryan
Gorman Show and joining me in studio right now, I
have Ernie Garatte Heritage Insurance Company CEO. You can learn
more about this company at HERITAGEPCI dot com. Ernie, thank
you so much for taking a few minutes to come
in and join us. And I have so many questions
to ask you. The insurance industry obviously a big topic
(00:21):
of conversation here in Florida in particular, but let me
start with the fact that you're based in Tampa. What
drew your company to the Tampa Bay area to set
up shock.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, thank you for having me, Ryan, So look, Tampa's
a great place, right It just has a variety of people,
a lot of skill sets. Most people don't actually realize
there's a pretty big hub of insurance professionals here in
Tampa and the Tampa areas. And again we can pull
people from Saint Pete, from Clearwater, as far as down
as Sarasota. So we really love basing our corporate offices
here in Tampa.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
The market itself, what have you seen in terms of growth,
in terms of how Tampa has evolved in recent years,
especially from a business perspective.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, no, it's a great place. The economic environment here
is fantastic. I mean we've seen people come down from
the Northeast, from all over the place. It brings some
of the traffic, so we'll have to deal with some
of that, but just the skill set of people in
the economic you know, vitality here has been fantastic from
a business environment.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So tell us a little bit about Heritage Insurance.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Sure, So Heritage is based here out of Tampa, Flora,
as you said, but we offer a homeowner's product in
sixteen different states. So we do homeowners insurance here for
folks who do also a little bit of commercial residential
as well, and a CGL policy, which is a commercial
general liability policy, but we mostly focus on homeowners in
sixty different states.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
What makes Florida stand out as a market for homeowners insurance?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So, as I tell people, look born and raised in Florida,
love it right, But we also have to know where
we live, right, and it's close to the water, so
obviously it's prone to a lot of hurricanes, so we
do focus in areas that you know are prone to catastrophes.
We understand that business. I tell most people right. They
don't understand. As an insurance company, we buy insurance, right,
It's called reinsurance, which helps us be more protected the
(02:09):
event that there's a hurricane. We're there not just for
that hurricane, but for future hurricanes to come.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
We had a quiet hurricane season here in twenty twenty five,
but that hadn't been the case for a couple of
years in a row, including a couple of devastating ones
just a year ago in Helene and Milton. How much
does one of those hits, whether it's Fort Myers with
Ian or in the Panhandle with Michael, or what we
saw in the Tampa Bay area with Helena and Milton,
(02:38):
how much does that impact the insurance industry when one
of those storms hits.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, it does have an impact, but I think what
I explained to people, it's the expected impact, right, And
that's a very key word there. So if you take
a look at Milton that just recently happened, Yeah, we
did have losses, But what happens in our industry is
we model those losses based on wind speeds, based on
the size of the storm, and if there's based on
that model, we'll see what kind of losses we have
(03:04):
if it's expected, right, that's not a big deal in
the sense that again we have reinsurance.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
We pay for those losses.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But if you go back a number of years, we
did have some storms like Irma and Ian, which brought
also with it what I call another event. That other
event is the amount of litigation that came with those storms.
So we have to pay for that litigation that raised prices,
that raised the cost right which then inferned is costly
(03:32):
for everybody else.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
We're joined right now for our CEO spotlight by Ernie Garrette,
Heritage Insurance Company CEO. You can learn more about Heritage
at HERITAGEPCI dot com. What about your general storms, general
flooding that we see here in Florida outside of the
hurricanes themselves, does that make it just a riskier market overall?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
It does a little bit.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
When you take a look at the flood that's usually
covered by the National Flood Insurance Program n FIP, so
we do not cover that. But I've been you can
get that through the flood program out there, but we've
been pretty quiet. What we call from severe convective storm
storms that you see in March April May timeframe.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
So it's been good weather, it's been good.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
But as I tell people, our business plan isn't if
there's a hurricane, it's when the event arises, whether that's
a you know, thunderstorm or whether that's a Category five.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
That's what we're here for.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Are there other factors that make Florida unique outside of
you know what we've discussed mainly weather related issues.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, what I what I bring to folks, And this
is something that came up through the National Association of
Insurance Commissioners. Florida accounts for eight percent of all homeowner
claims nationwide. When you take a look at the population,
there's a match there. But Florida also counts for seventy
eight percent of all litigated claims. Right, that's a huge
(04:56):
number based on all the other states that we're referring
to here, So that is is pretty unique when it
comes to that. So if you go back the reform
of twenty two that the state pass has made a
really big difference in our market. Right, It's put things
back to an even playing field. It's lowered the costs.
As I'll give you an example, you're seeing rates go down.
(05:17):
We last year brought our rates down three percent this year,
we filed for another three percent.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Now that's a statewide average.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Some areas like Hillsborough County or Panels will see somewhere
between sake six to eight percent decrease. Other areas may
see like take Off Seola Seminole County may see up
to a ten percent decrease.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So you have seen the markets begin to stabilize here
in Florida, because that's what we've been hearing from officials
here in this state. But it's interesting getting your perspective
in the insurance industry.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, I'll give you another point of fact.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Right, you're also seeing about fourteen to fifteen new entrance
into the market. Now, some of those are existing carriers
that are putting up other insurance companies, but there are
truly about eight to nine new carriers coming into the market. Again,
another sign that things are stabilizing and a much healthier
insurance market.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
We're joined here in our CEO spotlight by Ernie Garrette,
Heritage Insurance Company CEO. You mentioned you're in I think
you said sixteen different states. Are there some states that
it's just easier to do insurance there compared to for
I think you're in California too. We are we're in
California wildfire. Yes, I can only imagine.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So California is what we call an excess and surplus line,
so it's not as heavily regulated as compared to being
an admitted market, which allows us a little more flexibility.
So what you are seeing in California as a number
of carriers, the larger national carriers exit that market. They
just can't get rate. It's heavily regulated, so it's very
tough for them to do business. There are some states
(06:46):
that are a little easier to do business, and what they
do is they just give you some guardrails and say, hey,
if you need to move your rates up three four
five percent, go ahead and do it. Once you need
to go past that, then you'll have to kind of
submit a filing to them.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
How does the broader economy, you know, that's a big question.
What are we going to expect in twenty twenty six
and there's just a lot of uncertainty right now. How
does that factor into your business and what you do?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, so the important part I mentioned is about reinsurance, right,
So we go to different markets and whether that's London, Bermuda, Zurich,
and then we are able to buy reinsurance when interest
rates are going down, when the weather's much better, there's
more capital.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That capital is coming in.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
It's a great example this year where I think you're
going to see much more capital coming into the reinsurance market.
That's very good. Reinsurance is probably our biggest cost driver. Well,
that's going to lower prices. That lowers those prices. In turn,
we can kind of turn that back to our policy holders.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
How is the industry and your company changing? You know,
we talk a lot about AI these days, and there's
a big focus on AI and insurance and things like that.
What are you seeing on that end?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, so we are using AI, but we are putting
up some guardrails around there. We're very big fans of
technology and making that process more efficient and effective.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
But I'm a still believer in people.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Right, So there are things that we're automating and you know,
welcome letters that will send out automatically. The system does
a great job. The AI technology is fantastic for that,
but there is something still to be said. Call somebody up,
talk to them, have a conversation. Let the AI work.
Where you got to kind of some mundane task and
you know, letter writing and things that need to happen.
(08:23):
But I'm still believers. Talk to somebody explain the insurance process.
Explain when they have a claim. We understand that when
there's a claim, most people don't know how to handle
that process.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
We're very big about let's call our customers, let's get
them on the phone, let's walk them through the process.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
And finally, your time as CEO of Heritage Insurance, tell
us how you got to that position and what you've
seen some of the things that have stood out to
you in that role in recent years.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
So again, we started with Heritage in twenty twelve, I
was the COO and then became a CEO in twenty
twenty one. You know, I've been in the insurance industry
for over thirty years. Day one out of college, got
into insurance. You know, most people are like, well, why'd
you get an insurance truth be total, It was a
job that I needed to do, but it was a
very interesting job, right. I started in claims, work my
(09:11):
way through that. I think for what I've seen over
the past thirty years, right, the insurance industry, it's a
variety of disciplines, when you really think about it. Yes,
we have risk management, but we also have accounting, we
have technology, there's you know, finance, there's a different aspects
in there, and I am the type of person I
really love to understand all those aspects, how they come together,
(09:31):
how they work, and when I tell folks about it.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Insurance is something everybody needs.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
This world would be in a big time trouble, right
if we didn't have insurance, right because people then think
about it, you'd have to put that money away right
in case something happened to your number one asset, which
is your home right right.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And finally, any tips that you can give anyone listening
about how to navigate all of this, or things for
them to keep an eye on, things for them to
pay close attention to. Time to insurance.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, So I think the one biggest thing is you
know your home. Your home is your biggest asset. And
what we tell people is you know the maintenance right,
talk about the roof right, talk about the gutters, tree,
simple trees, thing things like overhanging your home right, keep
up with that. I think that's the biggest thing. Not
just from an insurance your insurance rates can will go
down right when we see that, but also from a
(10:22):
safety issue, the last thing we want to see is
a big oak tree in the middle of your living
room and hopefully nobody gets hurt. So those are the
things we tell folks every day. Keep up with that maintenance.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Ernie Garrette, Heritage Insurance Company CEO with us here in
our CEO Spotlight. You can learn more at HERITAGEPCI dot com. Ernie,
thanks so much for coming and really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Thank you for having me. Ryan
Time now for our CEO spotlight here on the Ryan
Gorman Show and joining me in studio right now, I
have Ernie Garatte Heritage Insurance Company CEO. You can learn
more about this company at HERITAGEPCI dot com. Ernie, thank
you so much for taking a few minutes to come
in and join us. And I have so many questions
to ask you. The insurance industry obviously a big topic
(00:21):
of conversation here in Florida in particular, but let me
start with the fact that you're based in Tampa. What
drew your company to the Tampa Bay area to set
up shock.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, thank you for having me, Ryan, So look, Tampa's
a great place, right It just has a variety of people,
a lot of skill sets. Most people don't actually realize
there's a pretty big hub of insurance professionals here in
Tampa and the Tampa areas. And again we can pull
people from Saint Pete, from Clearwater, as far as down
as Sarasota. So we really love basing our corporate offices
here in Tampa.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
The market itself, what have you seen in terms of growth,
in terms of how Tampa has evolved in recent years,
especially from a business perspective.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, no, it's a great place. The economic environment here
is fantastic. I mean we've seen people come down from
the Northeast, from all over the place. It brings some
of the traffic, so we'll have to deal with some
of that, but just the skill set of people in
the economic you know, vitality here has been fantastic from
a business environment.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So tell us a little bit about Heritage Insurance.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Sure, So Heritage is based here out of Tampa, Flora,
as you said, but we offer a homeowner's product in
sixteen different states. So we do homeowners insurance here for
folks who do also a little bit of commercial residential
as well, and a CGL policy, which is a commercial
general liability policy, but we mostly focus on homeowners in
sixty different states.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
What makes Florida stand out as a market for homeowners insurance?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So, as I tell people, look born and raised in Florida,
love it right, But we also have to know where
we live, right, and it's close to the water, so
obviously it's prone to a lot of hurricanes, so we
do focus in areas that you know are prone to catastrophes.
We understand that business. I tell most people right. They
don't understand. As an insurance company, we buy insurance, right,
It's called reinsurance, which helps us be more protected the
(02:09):
event that there's a hurricane. We're there not just for
that hurricane, but for future hurricanes to come.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
We had a quiet hurricane season here in twenty twenty five,
but that hadn't been the case for a couple of
years in a row, including a couple of devastating ones
just a year ago in Helene and Milton. How much
does one of those hits, whether it's Fort Myers with
Ian or in the Panhandle with Michael, or what we
saw in the Tampa Bay area with Helena and Milton,
(02:38):
how much does that impact the insurance industry when one
of those storms hits.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, it does have an impact, but I think what
I explained to people, it's the expected impact, right, And
that's a very key word there. So if you take
a look at Milton that just recently happened, Yeah, we
did have losses, But what happens in our industry is
we model those losses based on wind speeds, based on
the size of the storm, and if there's based on
that model, we'll see what kind of losses we have
(03:04):
if it's expected, right, that's not a big deal in
the sense that again we have reinsurance.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
We pay for those losses.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But if you go back a number of years, we
did have some storms like Irma and Ian, which brought
also with it what I call another event. That other
event is the amount of litigation that came with those storms.
So we have to pay for that litigation that raised prices,
that raised the cost right which then inferned is costly
(03:32):
for everybody else.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
We're joined right now for our CEO spotlight by Ernie Garrette,
Heritage Insurance Company CEO. You can learn more about Heritage
at HERITAGEPCI dot com. What about your general storms, general
flooding that we see here in Florida outside of the
hurricanes themselves, does that make it just a riskier market overall?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
It does a little bit.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
When you take a look at the flood that's usually
covered by the National Flood Insurance Program n FIP, so
we do not cover that. But I've been you can
get that through the flood program out there, but we've
been pretty quiet. What we call from severe convective storm
storms that you see in March April May timeframe.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
So it's been good weather, it's been good.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
But as I tell people, our business plan isn't if
there's a hurricane, it's when the event arises, whether that's
a you know, thunderstorm or whether that's a Category five.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
That's what we're here for.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Are there other factors that make Florida unique outside of
you know what we've discussed mainly weather related issues.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, what I what I bring to folks, And this
is something that came up through the National Association of
Insurance Commissioners. Florida accounts for eight percent of all homeowner
claims nationwide. When you take a look at the population,
there's a match there. But Florida also counts for seventy
eight percent of all litigated claims. Right, that's a huge
(04:56):
number based on all the other states that we're referring
to here, So that is is pretty unique when it
comes to that. So if you go back the reform
of twenty two that the state pass has made a
really big difference in our market. Right, It's put things
back to an even playing field. It's lowered the costs.
As I'll give you an example, you're seeing rates go down.
(05:17):
We last year brought our rates down three percent this year,
we filed for another three percent.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Now that's a statewide average.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Some areas like Hillsborough County or Panels will see somewhere
between sake six to eight percent decrease. Other areas may
see like take Off Seola Seminole County may see up
to a ten percent decrease.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So you have seen the markets begin to stabilize here
in Florida, because that's what we've been hearing from officials
here in this state. But it's interesting getting your perspective
in the insurance industry.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, I'll give you another point of fact.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Right, you're also seeing about fourteen to fifteen new entrance
into the market. Now, some of those are existing carriers
that are putting up other insurance companies, but there are
truly about eight to nine new carriers coming into the market. Again,
another sign that things are stabilizing and a much healthier
insurance market.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
We're joined here in our CEO spotlight by Ernie Garrette,
Heritage Insurance Company CEO. You mentioned you're in I think
you said sixteen different states. Are there some states that
it's just easier to do insurance there compared to for
I think you're in California too. We are we're in
California wildfire. Yes, I can only imagine.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So California is what we call an excess and surplus line,
so it's not as heavily regulated as compared to being
an admitted market, which allows us a little more flexibility.
So what you are seeing in California as a number
of carriers, the larger national carriers exit that market. They
just can't get rate. It's heavily regulated, so it's very
tough for them to do business. There are some states
(06:46):
that are a little easier to do business, and what they
do is they just give you some guardrails and say, hey,
if you need to move your rates up three four
five percent, go ahead and do it. Once you need
to go past that, then you'll have to kind of
submit a filing to them.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
How does the broader economy, you know, that's a big question.
What are we going to expect in twenty twenty six
and there's just a lot of uncertainty right now. How
does that factor into your business and what you do?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, so the important part I mentioned is about reinsurance, right,
So we go to different markets and whether that's London, Bermuda, Zurich,
and then we are able to buy reinsurance when interest
rates are going down, when the weather's much better, there's
more capital.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That capital is coming in.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
It's a great example this year where I think you're
going to see much more capital coming into the reinsurance market.
That's very good. Reinsurance is probably our biggest cost driver. Well,
that's going to lower prices. That lowers those prices. In turn,
we can kind of turn that back to our policy holders.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
How is the industry and your company changing? You know,
we talk a lot about AI these days, and there's
a big focus on AI and insurance and things like that.
What are you seeing on that end?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, so we are using AI, but we are putting
up some guardrails around there. We're very big fans of
technology and making that process more efficient and effective.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
But I'm a still believer in people.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Right, So there are things that we're automating and you know,
welcome letters that will send out automatically. The system does
a great job. The AI technology is fantastic for that,
but there is something still to be said. Call somebody up,
talk to them, have a conversation. Let the AI work.
Where you got to kind of some mundane task and
you know, letter writing and things that need to happen.
(08:23):
But I'm still believers. Talk to somebody explain the insurance process.
Explain when they have a claim. We understand that when
there's a claim, most people don't know how to handle
that process.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
We're very big about let's call our customers, let's get
them on the phone, let's walk them through the process.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
And finally, your time as CEO of Heritage Insurance, tell
us how you got to that position and what you've
seen some of the things that have stood out to
you in that role in recent years.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
So again, we started with Heritage in twenty twelve, I
was the COO and then became a CEO in twenty
twenty one. You know, I've been in the insurance industry
for over thirty years. Day one out of college, got
into insurance. You know, most people are like, well, why'd
you get an insurance truth be total, It was a
job that I needed to do, but it was a
very interesting job, right. I started in claims, work my
(09:11):
way through that. I think for what I've seen over
the past thirty years, right, the insurance industry, it's a
variety of disciplines, when you really think about it. Yes,
we have risk management, but we also have accounting, we
have technology, there's you know, finance, there's a different aspects
in there, and I am the type of person I
really love to understand all those aspects, how they come together,
(09:31):
how they work, and when I tell folks about it.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Insurance is something everybody needs.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
This world would be in a big time trouble, right
if we didn't have insurance, right because people then think
about it, you'd have to put that money away right
in case something happened to your number one asset, which
is your home right right.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And finally, any tips that you can give anyone listening
about how to navigate all of this, or things for
them to keep an eye on, things for them to
pay close attention to. Time to insurance.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, So I think the one biggest thing is you
know your home. Your home is your biggest asset. And
what we tell people is you know the maintenance right,
talk about the roof right, talk about the gutters, tree,
simple trees, thing things like overhanging your home right, keep
up with that. I think that's the biggest thing. Not
just from an insurance your insurance rates can will go
down right when we see that, but also from a
(10:22):
safety issue, the last thing we want to see is
a big oak tree in the middle of your living
room and hopefully nobody gets hurt. So those are the
things we tell folks every day. Keep up with that maintenance.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Ernie Garrette, Heritage Insurance Company CEO with us here in
our CEO Spotlight. You can learn more at HERITAGEPCI dot com. Ernie,
thanks so much for coming and really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Thank you for having me. Ryan
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