I hate to see State Farm go as I know what it will do to the private market outside of State Farm. That said, anytime State Farm has a product they don’t want to sell they go outside of their brand. An example is Time/Assurant for their health product and Phoenix for tricky life products. There is no reason not to allow agents to represent other companies in the same way for home insurance.
That is why those of us who are independent agents never signed a very one sided contract with any one carrier.
I bet if Florida, didn’t try to get them jump through hoops to leave the state, or do moderate price hikes(which Citizens has to do also) they would of been more open to working with the state. As it is, I am glad to see that this will hurt Florida’s market, they get what they deserve for hounding private carriers.
The “gov” is going to BAIL OUT now and run for Senate before his chickens come home to roost. That will leave others in State scrambling for postions.
If some business school wanted to run a MODEL of how NOT TO operate…they could use this State as an example of how to mess it up.
Lets just hope we find a way to get GOOD carriers with adequate reinsurance other than the States CAT fund to come in to replace Statefarm Policies.
This is a disaster unlike any before it to the Florida Insurance marketplace. The small underfunded startups just cant handle this kind of influx of policies. They say they can but their financials say something totaly different.
There are plenty of co’s to cover these policies, the problem is they have not been rated in 4 or 5 yrs, people will pay 120 – 200% more for coverage, currently pols are underpriced. The southeast will be a problem (tri-counties), other than that try Universal, N.A.; Universal P & C, Cypress P & C – all have been thru 04-05 and survived, even if Demotech rated.
The problem in Florida is that there are small companies but when a hurricane hits the state, those companies will go out of business and Citizens picks the tab and also gets the assets of the companies. The doors for private insurers is closed who knows for how long that will go on.
I’m confused by the statement “There are plenty of co’s to cover these policies”. Yes there are many carriers in Florida but they don’t have the collective capacity (regardless of what their press releases say)to handle the 1mm SF policies. Additionally, do you know what the SF book of homeowners business consist of? It’s got quite a mix of older homes with little or no updates. These carriers don’t want these policie. Like everyone else, they want new homes. Plus some of these FL Domestics don’t know what’s around the corner for them – higher reinsurance rates that will prevent them from writing all of these SF policies.
Charlie Crist has been fairly quiet about SF lately. I’m sure someone has tipped him off and given him the specifics that about 1/2 of the SF polciies are “Citizens only risks” (diving boards, dogs, older roofs, etc). He knows he screwed this up by making things worse with SF but he can’t come out in the media and admit it.
older homes? yes, these folks are going to have to get 4pt inspects, and wind mits (and invest in a new roof??) if they want a decent rate/co. Most co’s go back 25 to 50 yrs with 4pt/wind mit. The older stuff 50+, some waterfront, and no updates should be Citizens business anyway. Problem is 2007 Citz rate freeze, they are too low now, and get selected over std co’s. Per below, most can find at least 5 co’s (out of the 20+)to take the risk – consumers need to do some research on the carriers and meet uw rules. there is capacity, and alot can change in 6 mos by the time the first DNRs go out.
We can conduct endless analysis of the events leading up to State Farm’s departure and the likely detriment following their departure. However, the real lesson learned should be we are witnessing yet another colossal failure of public officials.
For some strange reason, we continue to elect public officials with grand visions and plans to be executed in the name of fairness and justice. In reality, though, their meddling in the lives of citizens and the free enterprise system is the real problem.
At what point are we going to be attracted to public officials and statesmen who vow to simply uphold the constitution, enforce the law, protect citizens, keep our infrastructure in good working order and create an economic environment to allow our economy to flourish (i.e. low taxes, small government with decreased spending and limited regulation)?
Unfortunately, we continue to get exactly what we deserve when we repeatedly elect charlatans and snake oil salesmen. On that note, I would not be surprised if Floridians actually elect Crist to the Senate.
I hate to see State Farm go as I know what it will do to the private market outside of State Farm. That said, anytime State Farm has a product they don’t want to sell they go outside of their brand. An example is Time/Assurant for their health product and Phoenix for tricky life products. There is no reason not to allow agents to represent other companies in the same way for home insurance.
That is why those of us who are independent agents never signed a very one sided contract with any one carrier.
I bet if Florida, didn’t try to get them jump through hoops to leave the state, or do moderate price hikes(which Citizens has to do also) they would of been more open to working with the state. As it is, I am glad to see that this will hurt Florida’s market, they get what they deserve for hounding private carriers.
The “gov” is going to BAIL OUT now and run for Senate before his chickens come home to roost. That will leave others in State scrambling for postions.
If some business school wanted to run a MODEL of how NOT TO operate…they could use this State as an example of how to mess it up.
Lets just hope we find a way to get GOOD carriers with adequate reinsurance other than the States CAT fund to come in to replace Statefarm Policies.
This is a disaster unlike any before it to the Florida Insurance marketplace. The small underfunded startups just cant handle this kind of influx of policies. They say they can but their financials say something totaly different.
There are plenty of co’s to cover these policies, the problem is they have not been rated in 4 or 5 yrs, people will pay 120 – 200% more for coverage, currently pols are underpriced. The southeast will be a problem (tri-counties), other than that try Universal, N.A.; Universal P & C, Cypress P & C – all have been thru 04-05 and survived, even if Demotech rated.
The problem in Florida is that there are small companies but when a hurricane hits the state, those companies will go out of business and Citizens picks the tab and also gets the assets of the companies. The doors for private insurers is closed who knows for how long that will go on.
I’m confused by the statement “There are plenty of co’s to cover these policies”. Yes there are many carriers in Florida but they don’t have the collective capacity (regardless of what their press releases say)to handle the 1mm SF policies. Additionally, do you know what the SF book of homeowners business consist of? It’s got quite a mix of older homes with little or no updates. These carriers don’t want these policie. Like everyone else, they want new homes. Plus some of these FL Domestics don’t know what’s around the corner for them – higher reinsurance rates that will prevent them from writing all of these SF policies.
Charlie Crist has been fairly quiet about SF lately. I’m sure someone has tipped him off and given him the specifics that about 1/2 of the SF polciies are “Citizens only risks” (diving boards, dogs, older roofs, etc). He knows he screwed this up by making things worse with SF but he can’t come out in the media and admit it.
older homes? yes, these folks are going to have to get 4pt inspects, and wind mits (and invest in a new roof??) if they want a decent rate/co. Most co’s go back 25 to 50 yrs with 4pt/wind mit. The older stuff 50+, some waterfront, and no updates should be Citizens business anyway. Problem is 2007 Citz rate freeze, they are too low now, and get selected over std co’s. Per below, most can find at least 5 co’s (out of the 20+)to take the risk – consumers need to do some research on the carriers and meet uw rules. there is capacity, and alot can change in 6 mos by the time the first DNRs go out.
http://www.shopandcomparerates.com/HOCompareRates.htm
We can conduct endless analysis of the events leading up to State Farm’s departure and the likely detriment following their departure. However, the real lesson learned should be we are witnessing yet another colossal failure of public officials.
For some strange reason, we continue to elect public officials with grand visions and plans to be executed in the name of fairness and justice. In reality, though, their meddling in the lives of citizens and the free enterprise system is the real problem.
At what point are we going to be attracted to public officials and statesmen who vow to simply uphold the constitution, enforce the law, protect citizens, keep our infrastructure in good working order and create an economic environment to allow our economy to flourish (i.e. low taxes, small government with decreased spending and limited regulation)?
Unfortunately, we continue to get exactly what we deserve when we repeatedly elect charlatans and snake oil salesmen. On that note, I would not be surprised if Floridians actually elect Crist to the Senate.