State Farm to Stop Selling Home Insurance to Floridians
January 27th, 2009 by Mike VasilindaHundreds of thousands of homeowners insured by State Farm will have to start looking for a new insurance company. The state’s largest commercial insurer told state regulators it would stop selling homeowners policies completely over the next two years. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the company says its rates didn’t match the risk.
Hear it Here: State Farm to Stop Selling Home Insurance to Floridians
703,000 State Farm policy holders need to start looking for a new insurance company. State Farm told the state it was pulling the plug on selling homeowners insurance because the risk didn’t match the rates the company was allowed to charge.
“The plan is so newly in our hands that we haven’t had the opportunity to fully review everything, and once we do, we’ll see what the next steps could be, but at this point right now, their plan is to pull out of Florida,” Ed Domansky with the Office of Insurance Regulation said.
The company refused to make a spokesperson available. The announcement caused immediate concern for homeowners.
“It’s going to cost everybody in the long run,” State Farm policy holder Gerald Thursby said.
State Farm writes almost 2 million auto policies.
State Farm wants to keep selling auto policies, almost two million of them in Florida. But that’s something that will be up for debate in the state legislature.
At a budget news conference the Governor said good riddance.
“Well, they probably charged about the highest rate in the state anyway. I think Floridians will be much better off without them,” Crist said.
Afterward, we asked what he would say to the company president.
Florida CFO Alex Sink says the pullout is serious.
“What I want to do is ensure that the policy holders of State Farm are handled in the right way and they understand where they can go to get other insurance,” Sink said.
State Farm collected just over a billion dollars last year from insuring Florida homes.
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