By Joseph E. Seagle, Esq.

👋 Happy Friday! Today is National Chocolate Milkshake Day. For the lactose-tolerant, this is a holiday. For those who are intolerant, today could be a nightmare.

❗️Situation Awareness: TRIM notices are out. These are the Florida Property Tax estimates and notices of rights to appeal valuations and exemption losses. We have processed close to 2,000. If we are your trustee, you should have received a notice via the Clio portal that your TRIM notice is available for viewing. If you have not received your notice and we’re your trustee, please contact us at [email protected] to check status as soon as possible.

1 big thing: FL’s Insurance “Fix” Hits Homeowners’ Wallets

Florida’s 2023 tort reform law, pitched as a way to cut frivolous lawsuits and stabilize the property insurance market, has instead left many homeowners facing higher premiums and more denied claims — even as insurers report healthier profits.

By the numbers:

• In 2024, nearly 13% of homeowners whose claims were denied sued their insurer, up from 12.4% in 2022.

• Carriers closed 47% of damage claims without payment, the highest share in almost a decade.

• Florida still leads the nation in policyholder lawsuits despite the reforms.

• Insurers, meanwhile, recorded their first underwriting profit since 2015, with 15 new carriers entering the state.

Why it matters for real estate pros:

• Premiums remain sky-high. Despite state claims that rates are stabilizing, homeowners continue to see increases — squeezing affordability and slowing buyer demand.

• Tighter coverage. More denied claims and narrower policy terms mean buyers and investors face greater out-of-pocket risk, especially after hurricanes.

• Market uncertainty. Florida’s reliance on smaller, lightly capitalized carriers remains a weak spot; their collapse can trigger special assessments that hit property owners.

The industry spin: Insurance groups argue the reforms curbed legal abuse, making Florida’s market “the healthiest in nearly a decade.” Regulators point to penalties against misbehaving carriers as proof of accountability.

The pushback: Consumer advocates and attorneys counter that the reforms emboldened insurers to deny more claims, knowing it’s harder for homeowners to sue. “If Florida carriers would pay claims fairly, there wouldn’t be a need for so many lawsuits,” said David Lipman of Kanner & .

What’s next:

• Regulators are now requiring insurers to report more detailed litigation and dispute data.

• Other states (Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Louisiana) are adopting Florida’s model — meaning Florida’s insurance experiment could spread.

• For Florida real estate, the pressure point remains clear: until affordability and reliability return to the insurance market, deals will stay fragile.

Go deeper: Washington Post via Apple News

2. Florida Ranks 2nd in Financial Distress — What that means for housing

The big picture: Florida just landed as the second-most financially distressed state in the U.S., according to WalletHub. Only Texas ranks worse. For a state with a booming economy and steady in-migration, this underscores a widening gap between macroeconomic strength and household financial health.

Why it matters: For real estate professionals, consumer financial strain directly translates into tighter mortgage approvals, higher delinquency risk, and slower demand for new purchases. Investors and brokers who built strategies on Florida’s growth story must now account for this household-level weakness.

By the numbers:

• Florida has the highest share of residents with accounts in financial distress nationwide.

• It ranks 2nd in distressed accounts per capita and 2nd in delinquency rates.

• The state sits 9th worst for average credit scores and is seeing rising bankruptcy filings.

• Visual Capitalist confirms Florida trails only Texas on the financial-distress leaderboard.

Driving the trend:

• High cost of living: Home insurance premiums, property taxes, and housing costs are climbing faster than wages.

• Consumer debt: Credit card and auto loan balances are spiking across Florida households.

• Population growth: Rapid in-migration boosts housing demand, but also strains affordability and household budgets.

What’s next:

• Expect lenders to tighten underwriting, especially for first-time buyers with thin credit.

• Mortgage brokers and private lenders could see more business as traditional financing becomes harder to secure.

• Investors may find increased demand for rentals as financially stressed households delay ownership.

Bottom line: Florida’s real estate economy remains robust (albeit a “buyers’ market”), but the financial cracks at the household level are deepening. For real estate pros, the opportunity lies in adjusting strategies—leaning into rental demand, preparing for higher delinquency risk, and watching how consumer credit trends shape the state’s housing market.

Every time I see another news story about a professional athlete’s home being robbed while they were at a game, it baffles me as to why any of those who live in Florida would let the public know where they live. In this week’s “Trust This” Quicktake, I discuss the issues of celebrities, their properties, and why they should leave fame behind at home.

 Listen in or watch on your favorite streaming platform.

3. When to hit the gas and brakes on asset protection

Timing is everything in asset protection. Move too late, and your efforts could be deemed fraudulent conveyances—leaving your assets vulnerable to seizure. That's why I use a simple traffic light system to help clients understand the critical windows for protecting their wealth.

Green Light: The Ideal Time

The perfect time for asset protection planning is before you enter any high-liability profession or business venture. Think of this as the preventative medicine approach—establishing trusts, LLCs, and other protective structures before you become a doctor, attorney, CPA, or real estate investor.

The challenge? Most people don't have significant assets to protect when they're just starting their careers. This creates a catch-22 that often leaves professionals scrambling to catch up later.

Yellow Light: Proceed with Caution

You're in the yellow zone when you're established in your profession but haven't yet faced imminent liability threats. Perhaps you're still working for someone else's company, or you're planning to start your own practice. This is your warning signal—time to get serious about asset protection.

Key yellow light moments include:

• Transitioning from employee to business owner

• Starting your own medical practice or law firm

• Launching a real estate development company

• Any time you're gaining financial visibility in your community

During this phase, courts will generally view your asset protection moves as legitimate business and estate planning rather than fraudulent transfers.

Red Light: Stop—It's Too Late

Once you're in the red zone, asset protection becomes extremely risky. You've entered this danger zone if you've already signed personal guarantees knowing you might default, or if you're aware that economic conditions could force you into bankruptcy.

The absolute red line? When you've received notice of a potential lawsuit or have already been served. The court will likely reverse any asset transfers at this point as fraudulent conveyances, typically for actions taken within two to three years before a judgment.

The Bottom Line

Florida's fraudulent conveyance laws are designed to prevent people from hiding assets from legitimate creditors. The key is acting while you're in the green or yellow zones, before any clouds appear on your legal horizon.

Remember: asset protection isn't about evading legitimate debts—it's about structuring your affairs to minimize exposure to frivolous claims and unexpected liabilities. The best strategies are implemented when you don't need them, ensuring they're available when you do.

Don't wait for the red light. If you're entering a high-liability profession or business venture, now is the time to consult with an experienced asset protection attorney.

Go deeper: “Trust This” YouTube Video

4. Closing Thought: AI and the Seven Steps of Strategic Decision-Making

The “seven steps of strategic decision-making” are a classic framework in business strategy. Different versions exist, but the standard sequence usually looks like this:

1. Identify the decision

You must define the problem or opportunity with precision. Is this about expanding into a new market, hiring a key executive, or automating a workflow?

How AI helps: AI can sift through data, highlight anomalies or trends you didn’t see, and help articulate whether you’re facing a real problem or just noise. Think of it as a clarity amplifier.

2. Gather relevant information

Once you know the decision, you need inputs: financial data, customer feedback, competitor analysis, regulatory changes.

How AI helps: AI excels at data ingestion—scraping markets, summarizing reports, or predicting demand curves. Instead of weeks of research, you can compress it into hours with AI-powered tools.

3. Identify alternatives

Strategic choices aren’t “yes or no”; they’re “which of the possible paths forward best fits?”

How AI helps: Generative AI can act as a brainstorming partner, offering potential strategies (e.g., entering a market directly vs. partnering vs. licensing). It can also simulate “what if” models.

4. Weigh the evidence

Here, you analyze feasibility, risks, and returns.

How AI helps: AI can run scenario analysis, Monte Carlo simulations, and predictive models. It reveals hidden correlations and stress-tests your assumptions.

5. Choose among alternatives

Decision time. This is where leadership and vision meet the analysis.

How AI helps: While AI won’t make the final call (that’s your job), it can provide ranked recommendations with probabilities, so your choice isn’t a gut gamble but an informed commitment.

6. Take action

Execution involves communicating decisions, allocating resources, and setting timelines.

How AI helps: AI project management tools can break decisions into tasks, optimize workflows, and even generate communication drafts tailored for stakeholders.

7. Review the decision and its consequences

After implementation, did the decision actually deliver what you hoped?

How AI helps: AI can track KPIs in real time, generate dashboards, and surface early warning signals if the decision is going off track. It can even recommend mid-course corrections.

AI doesn’t replace the human role—it accelerates and augments each step, while judgment, vision, and values remain firmly in human hands. The interesting frontier is when AI moves from being a tool in the process to being a participant—raising options you wouldn’t have conceived of at all.

We hope you found this helpful — any feedback is appreciated and can be shared by hitting reply or using the feedback feature below.

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