Root Inc. is cutting Florida auto insurance rates by an average of 15%, the digital carrier announced Thursday, becoming the latest insurer to pass tort-reform-driven savings on to policyholders in a state where premiums had risen sharply before the reforms took hold.
The Ohio-based company, which has operated in Florida since 2022, said the reduction affects more than 52,000 policyholders, with eligible customers expected to save roughly $400 a year on average. Root put the total annualized savings at approximately $21 million.
"We're excited to reduce base rates by 15% for Florida customers and put money back in the hands of drivers," said Alex Timm, founder and CEO of Root. "Florida's insurance market continues to improve as costs continue to decline under the reforms, and Root's ability to accurately price risk allows us to reflect those improvements in what our customers pay."
Root's move fits a pattern that has taken shape across Florida's auto insurance sector since lawmakers passed tort-reform measures affecting the state's insurance market. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation data shows Florida's top five auto insurers - who together hold roughly 78% of the state's personal auto market - recorded an average rate decrease of 8% year-to-date in 2026.
That follows a 7.4% average decrease in 2025, a reversal from the 31.7% increase recorded in 2023, the year the reforms were signed.
Other major carriers have made similar moves. USAA filed an average 7% rate decrease effective by May 2026, expected to save its Florida members more than $125 million annually. State Farm has cut rates by more than 10% in its most recent filing, part of reductions totaling over 20% since 2024. AAA has lowered premiums by 15% across three separate reductions over the past year.
The underlying driver is falling litigation activity. Property insurance litigation filings fell 23% year-over-year from 2023 to 2024, with frivolous property claim litigation dropping a further 25% in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data from the governor's office. The result shows up directly in loss ratios: Florida's personal auto liability loss ratio reached 52.5% in 2025, the state's lowest in 15 years and the lowest of any state nationally, per FLOIR.
Sean Kevelighan, CEO of the Insurance Information Institute, said premiums are stabilizing and competition is increasing as the reforms take hold, though he cautioned that new risks - including a severe drought and elevated wildfire activity in early 2026 - could test the market's gains going forward.
Root's rate action is worth reading separately from the broader carrier wave, because its model operates differently from traditional personal auto insurers. Root prices primarily on individual telematics-based risk data rather than traditional rating factors like credit score, occupation or education level. When systemic cost drivers in a market improve - as litigation costs have in Florida - a telematics-based model can reflect those improvements in pricing faster and more precisely than a traditional model that uses blended rating factors across a large portfolio.
Root has grown its Florida footprint steadily through the reform period, expanding from its initial 2022 market entry to more than 52,000 policyholders today.
For brokers advising personal auto clients in Florida, the consistent direction of these cuts across carriers should be shaping renewal conversations now. A client who last renewed in 2023 or 2024 - when rates were still adjusting to the post-spike environment - is in a materially different market today. The FLOIR data showing the state's lowest loss ratio in 15 years, combined with rate reductions from USAA, State Farm, AAA and now Root, establishes that the reform dividend is flowing through in a measurable and sustained way rather than as a one-off adjustment.
That context is worth raising proactively with clients who may have adjusted their coverage or changed carriers during the 2023 rate spike and have not reviewed their program since. A market that spent three years tightening is now in a documented reversal. Brokers who surface that information at the next renewal, backed by the specific FLOIR data and carrier rate actions, are providing something more useful than a renewal quote - they are providing a market interpretation the client cannot get from a comparison tool.
