Life Insurance

1994-1996: CEO of Florida Property & Casualty Joint Underwriting Association in Sarasota. Directed insurance company to provide post-Hurricane Andrew coverage.

1999-present: President of A.M. Bennett & Co. of Longboat Key, a consulting practice specializing in corporate, regulatory and legislative compliance for all lines of insurance.

So it might seem odd that the Longboat Key resident has been appointed to the board that governs the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

Bennett, with years of public- and private-sector experience in insurance, agrees Citizens is playing a key role today, but one she wants to shrink in the future.

"But I'm hoping there will be a free market system that's going to work in the state of Florida, and Citizens will have less and less of a role as we go forward," she said.

It protects more than 1.3 million properties worth $432 billion, nearly one of every three homes in Florida, many of them in the riskiest coastal areas.

The company is transforming from a last-ditch insurer into a products-and-prices competitor against State Farm, Allstate and the other property insurers doing business in Florida.

She was appointed last month to a two-year term on the Citizens board by newly elected state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, whom Bennett supported in her campaign last year.

She was an elected state representative from her hometown district in Great Falls for six years, during which time she served as director of human resources for Blue Cross of Montana.

She was elected in 1984 to state auditor, a post similar to Florida's CFO that oversees government finance, insurance and securities regulation.

In 1994 she was recruited to become CEO of the Florida Property & Casualty Joint Underwriting Association, a state-run insurer created to provide insurance for those who lost their coverage after Hurricane Andrew.

She left after the JUA, a precursor to Citizens, was moved to Tallahassee in 1996 and joined FCCI Insurance Group of Sarasota. She was its director of corporate compliance and government affairs until 2000, when she founded A.M. Bennett & Co., a firm specializing in corporate, regulatory and legislative compliance matters related to insurance.

"I have an aversion to the Insurance Department," she says. "When you go to other states, you know what the rules are. Florida is one of those states where sometimes you don't know what the rules are."

"Florida is not considered a good place to work for insurance companies," she said. "If we had a better working relationship with the companies, if they knew what the rules were, then they would be willing to work in the state."

Customer service after the 2004 hurricanes was considered abysmal. The former chief operating officer resigned in 2005 amid allegations that he took bribes to steer business to a claims adjusting firm. Two other executives left after it was revealed that while on the Citizens payroll, they were working to launch a private insurance company that would take policies from Citizens.

All insured property owners are subsidizing Citizens with assessments on their policies. Those surcharges have helped pay for more than $1 billion in hurricane claims.

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