Not every Florida insurer is willing to take on Gov. Charlie Crist
and a public hearings-happy Office of Insurance Regulation.

As the deadline looms to file new rates that Crist insists must lower
premiums for the average Florida homeowner, a number of insurers are
having second thoughts about the hikes they initially sought.

Horace Mann, Teachers Insurance, and the AMEX Assurance/IDS Property
companies have all withdrawn their proposed hikes. So has Sentry
Insurance and Capitol Preferred.

Property insurers have until Sept. 30 to file final proposed rates
that reflect the state's $15 billion expansion of the Florida Hurricane
Catastrophe Fund.

This just released from two insurance industry groups:
"Property-casualty insurance industry net income for the first half of
this year hit a record $32.6 billion."

A co-author of the report is the Property Casualty Insurers
Association, which has been beating up Gov. Charlie Crist particularly
hard over his efforts to force competition in the Florida market.

The record net income surpasses the $29.4 billion highwater mark set
midway 2006. The report is based on a survey of U.S. property and
casualty insurers, including both home and auto underwriters.

For insurers, the golden lining carries a dark threat: increased
competition. The Insurance Information Institute is among those urging
insurers to keep from entering what usually comes next -- a cycle of
falling rates.

"The most important question facing the industry today is whether this
painful and destructive cycle can be broken," says Robert Hartwig,
president of the national trade organization and another frequent voice
in the Florida insurance wars.