They are only putting up a fight in Florida to write new auto biz. Their homeowners rates are much too low and I believe they may be the 3rd largest HO carrier in Florida, maybe 4th? Citizens is first and State Farm is second and State Farm is no longer writing new HO biz either, unless it is for a current client who is trading homes. Too much exposure, inadequate rates = no new HO biz. Our Insurance Commissioner wants to punish Allsate for asking for higher homeowners rates by restricting their sale of auto insurance. As a cover, he’s requested hundreds of thousands of documents and threatened to revolke Allstate’s certificate of authority because they didn’t deliver every single document he requested. I doubt he and every member of the DOI could have read EVERYTHING Allstate has already submitted, even if they were reading 9-5, weekends included. Allstate even published the infamous McKinsey report online. I think, that alone, is 10,000 pages! If you don’t believe me that their rates are low, go to http://www.shopandcomparerates.com and pick a county.
I have heard from several reliable sources that Allstate snet a letter out Monday to New York State Agents that they are putting a moratorium on new business.
They sure are putting up a fight in Fla to continue writing new business. Wonder why fight in Fl and stop on their own in NY?
And aren’t they still paying fines in Mass or Mich for the same reason Florida is fighting with them?
As long as we continue to see strong profits, even with worsening combined ratios the money is still good, you’re going to see the soft market continue. It’s already been a counter-intuitive proposition. Interest rates are low, credit scarce, yet we continue to see dropping rates in both commercial and personal lines accounts – especially commercial where underwriters are just being stupid in undercutting competitor’s rates. You’d think we were back in the early 80’s with double digit interest rates where all we had to do was write it and let the investments make the money for us. Warning, we’ve seen the mortgage loan markets get stupid in their underwriting practices and where have they wound up? Predictive modelling is great, but it’s only as profitable as the programs that run it. All it requires is a few companies to think that predictive modelling is the silver bullet to profitability and then decide to test the envelope until it breaks. Unfortunately, the dam will probably burst when we can least afford it… Like maybe a Katrina level event on the east coast. Then see how big the momentum will be for nationalizing insurance standards!
Keep loosening the tolerances on premium and pretty soon you’ll see combined ratios jetting above the century mark left and right. That’s when you will see a return of the hard market. Until then, hope you don’t get hit too hard by somebody else’s stupidity (or greed) in the mean time.
Amen to that. They react wrongly in tough times. Encompass is suffering from mismanagement. Glad that Robert Emmich is gone, he was a legend in his own mind.
They are only putting up a fight in Florida to write new auto biz. Their homeowners rates are much too low and I believe they may be the 3rd largest HO carrier in Florida, maybe 4th? Citizens is first and State Farm is second and State Farm is no longer writing new HO biz either, unless it is for a current client who is trading homes. Too much exposure, inadequate rates = no new HO biz. Our Insurance Commissioner wants to punish Allsate for asking for higher homeowners rates by restricting their sale of auto insurance. As a cover, he’s requested hundreds of thousands of documents and threatened to revolke Allstate’s certificate of authority because they didn’t deliver every single document he requested. I doubt he and every member of the DOI could have read EVERYTHING Allstate has already submitted, even if they were reading 9-5, weekends included. Allstate even published the infamous McKinsey report online. I think, that alone, is 10,000 pages! If you don’t believe me that their rates are low, go to http://www.shopandcomparerates.com and pick a county.
I love to hear opinions on this. If yes, when?
It doesn’t appear Allstate has anything to worry about. Pretty good combined ratio.
This organization has always made knee jerk decisions that has cripled them for the forseable future.
I have heard from several reliable sources that Allstate snet a letter out Monday to New York State Agents that they are putting a moratorium on new business.
They sure are putting up a fight in Fla to continue writing new business. Wonder why fight in Fl and stop on their own in NY?
And aren’t they still paying fines in Mass or Mich for the same reason Florida is fighting with them?
As long as we continue to see strong profits, even with worsening combined ratios the money is still good, you’re going to see the soft market continue. It’s already been a counter-intuitive proposition. Interest rates are low, credit scarce, yet we continue to see dropping rates in both commercial and personal lines accounts – especially commercial where underwriters are just being stupid in undercutting competitor’s rates. You’d think we were back in the early 80’s with double digit interest rates where all we had to do was write it and let the investments make the money for us. Warning, we’ve seen the mortgage loan markets get stupid in their underwriting practices and where have they wound up? Predictive modelling is great, but it’s only as profitable as the programs that run it. All it requires is a few companies to think that predictive modelling is the silver bullet to profitability and then decide to test the envelope until it breaks. Unfortunately, the dam will probably burst when we can least afford it… Like maybe a Katrina level event on the east coast. Then see how big the momentum will be for nationalizing insurance standards!
Keep loosening the tolerances on premium and pretty soon you’ll see combined ratios jetting above the century mark left and right. That’s when you will see a return of the hard market. Until then, hope you don’t get hit too hard by somebody else’s stupidity (or greed) in the mean time.
Amen to that. They react wrongly in tough times. Encompass is suffering from mismanagement. Glad that Robert Emmich is gone, he was a legend in his own mind.