As Florida families watch their home insurance premiums climb, one CEO's multimillion-dollar paycheck is drawing heated scrutiny.
What's happening?
According to ABC Gulf Coast News, Slide Insurance CEO Bruce Lucas and his wife, Slide's COO, earned $21 million and $16.5 million, respectively, last year. Together, they brought in over $50 million in compensation, even as many Florida homeowners face rate hikes topping 20%.
The payout comes at a time when insurance options in Florida are dwindling. Companies are pulling out of the state or slashing coverage, citing growing risks from extreme weather, like hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires.
"The greed! The rich get richer and the poor get poorer," said Mary Bousquet, a Cape Coral resident. "It's just so unbalanced. The whole thing is out of control — it has to be fixed somehow."
Why is home insurance coverage important?
This headline is just another in the recent news to highlight how a changing climate is rapidly reshaping the insurance landscape.
The warming of our planet, driven by human activities, like burning oil and gas, has led to more destructive weather events across the globe.
Florida has seen stronger, wetter hurricanes and intensified flooding. These changes make homes riskier to insure, which leads to higher premiums or companies exiting high-risk areas altogether.
That means families already struggling with high housing costs may be left without affordable options to protect their homes. And as more insurers cite climate risk in their decisions, this story is likely to repeat across coastal and fire-prone areas.
What's being done about home insurance coverage?
So far, Slide has stayed quiet. The company declined to comment, citing a "quiet period," and has not directly addressed customer concerns about rate hikes.
Founded just three years ago, Slide rapidly acquired policies from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state-backed insurer of last resort. While it posted more than $200 million in profits in 2024, there has been no public explanation of why top leadership was paid so lavishly amid record-breaking customer expenses.
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Definitely 🙁 Policymakers and advocates are working on solutions. Florida recently approved smaller-than-requested rate increases for Citizens, with some customers even seeing cuts.
Other efforts include pushing for stronger regulation of insurer profits, providing incentives for climate-resilient home upgrades, and expanding access to affordable, state-backed coverage.
Climate-focused organizations like Rewiring America are also calling for investments in clean energy and infrastructure that can help reduce climate risk in the long term. Cleaner homes, upgraded power grids, and community resilience projects are all part of building a safer future.
Rising insurance costs aren't just a money issue; they reflect the growing human toll of climate neglect. As long as we keep burning dirty energy and failing to prepare communities for worsening storms, more families will find themselves priced out of safety.
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