Key Takeaways
- Security First is worth quoting if you’re in a non-coastal Florida zip code and national carriers have declined you or priced you out — but get the Citizens comparison first, because the price gap is sometimes smaller than agents let on.
- The company’s financial strength rating from Demotech sits at ‘A’ (Exceptional), which meets most mortgage lender requirements, but Demotech ratings are not equivalent to AM Best ratings and Florida’s OIR has flagged that distinction publicly.
- Policy language around roof age and wind mitigation credits is where Security First’s underwriting gets strict — if your roof is over 15 years old, expect either a surcharge or a denial before you see a quote.
- Across several hundred user reports on Google and the Florida OIR complaint database, the recurring friction point is claims response time after named storms, not routine claims — a pattern consistent with what most Florida domestic carriers face during cat events.
Security First Insurance Review: Florida Homeowners Coverage When the Big Carriers Won’t Write You
Security First Insurance is worth looking at if you own a home in Florida and national carriers have either dropped you or quoted you into sticker shock. That’s the audience this company was built for. It writes homeowners insurance exclusively in Florida, covers roughly 175,000 policyholders, and positions itself squarely in the gap that carriers like Farmers, Bankers Insurance, and others have retreated from since 2021.
This review draws on Security First’s publicly available policy documents, rate filings with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), and aggregated user sentiment from Google reviews, the OIR consumer complaint database, and Reddit’s r/florida and r/homeowners communities. No quote-flow data was generated for this review.
What Security First Actually Is
Security First Financial, Inc. is the parent company. Security First Insurance Company is the licensed carrier writing policies. The company was founded in 1996, is headquartered in Ormond Beach, Florida, and is licensed only in Florida. That single-state focus is not a bug, it’s the business model.
Demotech rates Security First at ‘A’ (Exceptional). Demotech ratings are required by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for Florida domestic carriers, so your mortgage lender will almost certainly accept it. But Demotech’s ‘A’ is not the same as an AM Best ‘A’, and the Florida OIR has noted that distinction in consumer guidance. The methodology differs, the capital threshold differs, and Florida domestic carriers have failed despite holding a Demotech ‘A’ right up to insolvency. Heritage Insurance went through severe financial stress. Weston Insurance collapsed. Both had Demotech ratings. That history doesn’t mean Security First is in trouble, it means the rating deserves context, not blind trust.
Coverage Basics
Security First’s core homeowners policy (HO-3 form) covers the standard perils: dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, liability, and medical payments. Wind is included in the base policy for most inland zip codes, which distinguishes them from Citizens Wind-Only policies that non-coastal owners sometimes end up with by mistake.
The company also offers:
– Water backup and sump overflow coverage as an endorsement – Equipment breakdown coverage – Enhanced contents replacement cost (as an upgrade from ACV) – Identity theft protection bundles – Screened enclosure coverage, which matters in Florida more than most states acknowledge
The endorsements are priced separately and add up. A base policy at a competitive premium can look meaningfully different after you add water backup coverage and upgrade contents to replacement cost. Get the full premium with the endorsements you’d actually need before comparing the headline number to Citizens or another domestic carrier.
The Roof Issue, Read This Before You Bind
Here’s where Security First’s underwriting gets strict, and where I’d focus your attention if you’re in the research phase.
Roof age matters enormously. Homes with roofs over 15 years old face surcharges, ACV-only roof settlement clauses, or outright declines, depending on roof type and zip code. After Florida’s 2022 property insurance reform bills (SB 2-D and SB 2A), most Florida domestic carriers moved toward ACV roof settlement for older roofs, and Security First followed. This is legal, disclosed in the policy endorsements, and easy to miss on a quick quote.
ACV roof settlement means that if a named storm damages your 17-year-old shingle roof, the payout reflects depreciated value, not replacement cost. On a $20,000 roof with a 10-year depreciation schedule, that gap can run $12,000 to $15,000 out of pocket. That’s a real number, and it’s in the policy language, not the marketing.
Wind mitigation credits go the other direction. If you have a hip roof, secondary water resistance underlayment, or impact-rated openings, Security First applies credits that can reduce wind premium by 20% to 40%. Get a wind mitigation inspection before you quote. In my years writing Florida-adjacent policies for snowbirds through an independent agency, wind mitigation credits were the single most underutilized savings lever; homeowners either didn’t know to ask or didn’t want to pay the $150 inspection fee that could save them $400 a year.
What Florida’s OIR Filing History Shows
Security First has filed multiple rate increases with the Florida OIR since 2020. The public rate filings available through the OIR’s IRFS system show approved increases in 2021, 2022, and 2023, with the 2022 filing citing reinsurance cost escalation and litigation frequency in specific counties. The filed actuarial memos reference loss cost trends in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach that run well above state averages, which is consistent with why the company has pulled back from heavy coastal exposure.
The OIR approved the filings. That’s not a criticism, it’s the Florida market working as designed after post-Irma and post-Ian reinsurance repricing. But it tells you where Security First’s losses have been concentrated, and it explains why the inland underwriting is more favorable than the coastal book.
What Customers Actually Report
Across Google reviews (roughly 200 rated entries as of mid-2026) and the OIR consumer complaint database, the pattern breaks down this way:
For routine claims (water damage, theft, non-weather losses), customer experience is reasonably positive. Response times for smaller claims average a few days to a week based on what reviewers report, and settlement disputes are uncommon.
After named storms, the picture changes. Longer adjuster wait times, disputes over cause of loss (wind versus water, which determines coverage allocation), and payment delays appear repeatedly in both OIR complaints and Reddit threads from Hurricane Ian’s aftermath. This is not unique to Security First, almost every Florida domestic carrier took on the same criticism post-Ian. But it’s the condition that matters most to a Florida homeowner, and it’s worth naming plainly.
The OIR complaint ratio (complaints per 1,000 policies) for Security First has historically run below the Florida domestic market median, which is at least a defensible data point in their favor.
How Security First Compares to Alternatives
The realistic comparison set for most Security First customers is Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, Heritage Insurance, HCI Group’s Homeowners Choice, and Universal Property & Casualty.
Citizens is the state-backed insurer of last resort. For inland properties, Security First often prices within 10% to 15% of Citizens on like-for-like coverage, and sometimes below it. The catch is that Citizens has a depopulation mandate, private carriers can and do take-out Citizens policies, which means your Citizens policy might become a Security First policy anyway if you’re in a targeted zip code.
For a current sense of where Security First lands on price versus the competition, pulling homeowners insurance quotes with your specific address is more useful than any benchmark I can give you here. Florida’s rate variation by zip code is severe enough that county-level averages are nearly meaningless for individual decision-making.
For a broader view of the Florida specialty carrier market and how Security First fits into it, see the best homeowners insurance comparison, which tracks the full field including national carriers still writing select Florida counties.
Who Security First Is Right For
The strongest fit is a homeowner in a non-coastal Florida county with a roof under 15 years old who has been declined or priced out by national carriers. Add wind mitigation features and you may find a genuinely competitive rate. The policy form is standard, the coverage options are reasonable, and the Demotech ‘A’ clears the mortgage lender hurdle.
The weaker fit is a coastal property owner, anyone with an older roof who wants replacement cost coverage, and anyone whose primary concern is catastrophic-event claims service. The 2022 and 2023 legislative reforms helped the Florida market structurally, but they also shifted more post-storm cost onto policyholders through ACV provisions and stricter assignment of benefits rules. Security First’s policy reflects that shift.
Get the Citizens comparison. Get the wind mit inspection if you haven’t. Read the roof endorsement on whatever policy you bind. Those three steps will tell you more than any review can.
