AIIC Appeals NJ Commissioner’s Auto Rate Decision

American International Group’s New Jersey subsidiary, American International Insurance Co., has appealed to the Superior Court of NJ, Appellate Division, seeking to reverse Banking and Insurance Commissioner Karen Suter’s decision of August 30th denying its request for a 17.6 percent increase in its auto insurance rates

A finding by Administrative Law Judge Louis G. McAfoos last June backed AIIC’s position. He determined that the rates were plainly inadequate, and that a significant increase was necessary, but Suter’s decision ignored McAfoos’ findings, and moreover determined that AIIC could reduce rates by 4.5 percent.

in reponse AIIC pointed out

that its current rates were already 14.5 percent lower than they were in 1995, when it entered the NJ market. It reaffirmed its intention to withdraw from the market, and charged that the Commissioner’s decision “underscores the overall climate which makes providing auto insurance in New Jersey untenable.”

AIIC’s announcement also noted that its customers would in all likelihood end up paying more for their coverage than the rate increases it was seeking, and that when it withdraws from NJ along with State Farm, “only four of the top ten national writers of automobile insurance will be active in the State.”|”aiic, appeals, nj, commissioner’s, auto, rate, decision,