Allstate Seeks to Open 50 New Agencies in Florida

Allstate Insurance says it wants to open nearly 50 new agency offices in Florida. About half of those openings will be in north Florida, the company said.

“North Florida has shown incredible growth for our agencies,” says Bob Jackson, regional sales leader for Allstate’s Florida region based in St. Petersburg. “In order to meet the demands of our current and future customers, we’ve made a decision to expand.”

Allstate estimates that each new office will mean multiple job opportunities for licensed staff, perhaps as many as 130 new jobs statewide. The agencies will sell auto, home and life insurance, according to a spokesman.

Allstate began scaling back on its property insurance writings in Florida in 2005, after the severe hurricane season but it has shown renewed interest in Florida business lately. Last spring, it launched an effort to write about 50,000 new multiline policies and began looking into taking out policies from state-backed Citizens Insurance Corp.

In Florida, Allstate operates as Castle Key Insurance Co. ($156 million and surplus and 157,000 policies) and Castle Key Indemnity Co. ($14.1 million in surplus and 76,536 policies). Allstate changed the names of its Florida subsidiaries to Castle Key in July 2009. The insurer said the name changes were made in order to “better reflect the fact that these property companies are separately capitalized from Allstate Insurance Co.”

The company has about 1,000 exclusive agents in the state. Allstate agents operate as independent contractors selling Allstate policies. They can own their own franchise while drawing on support and resources from the parent company. The company said there is no franchise fee, although candidates need to have $50,000 to $75,000 in liquid capital. The company says that money does not go to Allstate; rather it shows the new agency can pay for the normal operation costs.

Topics Florida Agencies