State Farm Reduces Fla. Rates Again, Saves Policyholders $23 Million
Southeast News • October 3, 2007
State Farm Insurance implemented an additional 2 percent rate reduction for Florida policyholders, according to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.
The rate reduction comes on the heels of ...
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Subject: Doesn't pay claims? Sorry haters - numbers don't lie.
Posted On: October 4, 2007, 2:48 pm CDT
Posted By: Gill Fin
Comment:
Mike Fernandez, State Farm vice president of corporate communications, said the insurer has closed on 84,760 homeowner claims in Mississippi and paid out more than $1 billion. Nationwide, State Farm closed more than 295,000 Katrina homeowner claims, he said.
"Somehow that gets lost,'' Fernandez told The Associated Press on Aug. 14.
The Bloomington, Ill., company makes up 30 percent of the Gulf Coast market and is one of the few major insurers that has been growing in the state "despite the atmosphere we're in,'' Fernandez said.
Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale said State Farm's public relations campaign should have begun last year after the storm nearly turned the Gulf Coast into a wasteland.
"They've done the poorest job of PR than any I've ever seen,'' Dale said. "There are untold hundreds of people who have been paid by State Farm, but they've allowed the ones that didn't get their claims paid to paint them with the same brush and they did nothing to try to offset that.''
The insurance industry was stung by criticism in the months after the storm. Hundreds of people claimed they didn't receive enough compensation or that agents didn't adequately explain the kind of damage the policies covered.
State Farm and other insurance companies are closely watching a groundbreaking case in Mississippi.
A federal judge ruled Aug. 15 on a Pascagoula couple's lawsuit that challenges Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. for refusing to cover damage from Katrina's storm surge. Nationwide claims its policies cover damage from wind but not from water, including wind-driven surge. Attorneys for the couple contend the policy terms are ambiguous and cannot be enforced. The judge upheld the flood exclusion in Nationwide's policy.
State Farm has about 200 lawsuits pending against it, with 125 of those filed in Mississippi, Fernandez said. The lawsuits stem from class-action litigation, coverage issues and claims over agents' performance, Fernandez said.
Subject: Doesn't pay claims? Sorry haters - numbers don't lie.
"Somehow that gets lost,'' Fernandez told The Associated Press on Aug. 14.
The Bloomington, Ill., company makes up 30 percent of the Gulf Coast market and is one of the few major insurers that has been growing in the state "despite the atmosphere we're in,'' Fernandez said.
Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale said State Farm's public relations campaign should have begun last year after the storm nearly turned the Gulf Coast into a wasteland.
"They've done the poorest job of PR than any I've ever seen,'' Dale said. "There are untold hundreds of people who have been paid by State Farm, but they've allowed the ones that didn't get their claims paid to paint them with the same brush and they did nothing to try to offset that.''
The insurance industry was stung by criticism in the months after the storm. Hundreds of people claimed they didn't receive enough compensation or that agents didn't adequately explain the kind of damage the policies covered.
State Farm and other insurance companies are closely watching a groundbreaking case in Mississippi.
A federal judge ruled Aug. 15 on a Pascagoula couple's lawsuit that challenges Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. for refusing to cover damage from Katrina's storm surge. Nationwide claims its policies cover damage from wind but not from water, including wind-driven surge. Attorneys for the couple contend the policy terms are ambiguous and cannot be enforced. The judge upheld the flood exclusion in Nationwide's policy.
State Farm has about 200 lawsuits pending against it, with 125 of those filed in Mississippi, Fernandez said. The lawsuits stem from class-action litigation, coverage issues and claims over agents' performance, Fernandez said.