Is North Carolina high risk from wind and hail? It seems to me that Allstate is dropping high profit, low risk business because they can’t have the low profit, high risk auto business. If they got the auto business their loss ratio on the home business would rise because the multi-policy discount drops the premium. Am I seeing this incorrectly? Why dump the part of the book that pays the most?
It looks like the agents in NC are under the gun to sell auto if that would save the home. Loss ratios are lower when there is companion business but as an agent I really cannot understand all that lost of premium & bad feelings will out weight the loses in claims. The actuaries who make these numbers work never face the public so it becomes a math game.I will say this for certain that NJ made the decision not to sell Home for the last 5 years and lost millions but who knows, maybe Al Gore’s Tsunami is right around the corner.Time will be the judge.
The problem is the rates on homeowners or not high enough to justify writing the business. The state has a fund (which has inadequate funds in it) to cover excess losses from a Hurricane. Once the fund runs out all insurance companies are assessed a proportionate fee for the shortage based upon the percent of business they write in the state. The more they write the more the assessment would be. Statistics show that auto/home combined accounts have lower loss ratios. They are just making a financial decision.
The homeowners insurance market in NC is a mess. Several companies including Nationwide and Erie are doing consent to rate on all monoline homeowners policies. Our past two insurance commissioners have been very consumer friendly, which is good. As a result of that very few if any carriers are able to be profitable on homeowners insurance. We are an independent agency and only one of our carriers will allow us to write monoline homeowners. We have a fund of approx $2 billion if we have a hurricane. If the fund’s limits are exhausted carriers will be assessed based on their premium volume in NC>
I write the whole country and my carriers dont like North Carolina. I think it is entirely fair that Allstate is doing this and it needs to be done in Florida as well. I dont think it’s fair that State Farm insures a person’s home while they have their auto with Geico or Progressive, neither of whom sell home insurance which is the most difficult to buy.
Same thing in Florida, insurance commissioners are doing us no favors.
We have lost business due to one of our carriers doing consent to rate and we have also picked up some accounts due to Nationwide’s consent to rate and Allstate’s non-renewal. It isn’t the easiest thing for our insureds to understand either, especially in this economy.
FLagent/insured….I don’t think it’s fair for a company to try to force you to use their auto insurance service. Allstate used to be my auto agent until I was able to get coverage for 1/2 as much elsewhere. Now they are canceling my homeowners after 32 years. Do you think that’s fair?
Its no secret that for about the past 12 years homeowners rates across the country have been underpriced. It is foolish to expect one company such as Geico to cherry pick insurance risk and leave the dificult problems to others. I applaud Allstate on this move even though I don’t like them as an independent agency. More carriers should follow their move across the entire country. If they did perhaps rates would level out and come down slightly
I applaud them too and its difficult to comprehend how any insurance agent who truly understands the business doesnt get why Allstate is doing this. Since I write a lot of business in NC, I understand it and I am in Florida. And no, I dont represent Allstate, but I take a lot of business from them.
first of all, how do you know if GEICO does not do HO or rental? have ou even called to find out? don’t put in judgement if you truly don’t know… also, many homes/rentals along the coastline are not covered by many companies due to the risk already associated by living there… make the appropriate statements before you find out that your wrong…
I have to disagree with this. Right now, for most consumers, it is about price. So, if it is cheaper overall to place homeowners with one carrier and auto with another, that is what the consumer will do. Sometimes, having the multi-policy discount does not equate to a cheaper premium.
I agree as an independent agent we love competiting against the captive carriers. We know in almost every case we have at least one line of business which will be drastically better priced. Which almost always outwieghs the “so called discounts” from multipolicy discounts.
It’s not about right now pricing ‘Just a thought’. It’s about long term ability to write business in the state. Allstate’s got a lot of problems but i think they will look back positively at this decision in 5 years. Maybe sooner.
It is time for all consumers to drop allstate in every state regardless what type of insurance homeowners, auto to show Allstate the true meaning of how to treat a consumer. For insurance companies it is a great gravy train ride when you pic and choose. Part of the equation is it is regulated by the state and those in charge at state level come from where? The Insurance industry itself. (Poor regulatory pratice drives rates higher for less coverage leaves consumers with little coverage for the dollar.
It’s time to revamp insurance industry in this country,truely open the market place and if you want to be in a particular state you must write all lines of insurance if you offer it in other states.If not then you will loose all options of writting insurance. Then good luck with your business then.
It is my belief this action is a violation of more than two (2) North Carolina insurance laws.
First, it is considered an enducement for these homeowners to buy their auto insurance through Allstate. According to a NCDOI agency examiner, merely requiring a prospect to pay for an driving record (MVR) and giving them credit for their payment when they purchase personal auto insurance is an enducement.
Second, this action could be in violation of both North Carolina and Federal “Unfair Trade Practices”. I believe the action would be considered coersion.
The question really is: “Does Commissioner Wayne Godwin have the political will to make Allstate obey the law?” I don’t believe he wants to upset his campaign contributors.
It sounds like Allstate (the “Good Hands” company) have their good hands into their clients’ pockets.
The answer is to this problem lies in the free market system. Simply do what Bank of America’s clients did and move their business to Allstate’s competitors.
How can a company who pushes 15% product ROE now tie/mandate multi-line into the mix? Homeowner should stand on its own and so should auto; this goes against good and solid underwriting standards, which seems to be happing more and more. If you’re losing money in HO, why would you still provide a Multi-line discount that drops the average premium by 5%-10%, that makes no sense to me, but that’s just me? Stop blaming profitability on CAT’s or a department that will not allow you to raise rates and put the blame on a company with one of the highest expense ratios in the industry today.
How can a company who pushes 15% product ROE now tie multi-line into the mix? Homeowner should stand on its own and so should auto; this goes against good and solid underwriting standards, which seems to be happing more and more. If you’re losing money in HO, why would you still provide a Multi-line discount that drops the average premium by 5%-10%, that makes no sense to me, but that’s just me? Stop blaming profitability on CAT’s or a department that will not allow you to raise rates and put the blame on a company with one of the highest expense ratios in the industry today.
I wish we could put this as a commercial on TV out here in CA. to show they aren’t as wonderful as their commercials portray them
Just rotten what they are doing
IT is amazing to me..I am an insurance agent in Florida where Allstate pulled out of here as fast as hell, not wanting to writing homeowners or property of any kind, but they advertize 24/7 to write auto insuance with them. My opinion is you either write all types of policies in a state or get out all together. Share the risk. You don’t get to pick only the cream of the crop risk!
now if they write all polices homeowners and auto in every other state, you would think they should be able to write them in FL… but then again, it’s a business… the fl insurance commish can’t tell them how to operate as far as to which type insurance to write or not write… if they just want to write an auto policy and not homeowners, then they should be able to… truly — FL does have problems with their homeowners and i can see that citizens will be tasked heavily when a hurricane does come…
It seems like coercion to me to too. It’s one thing to decide not to write a line of business in a certain area but to insist you must purchase another product to retain the one you already bought is ridiculous.
As a point of clarification, FL has a law (627.4055) that says: “Effective January 1, 2008, no insurer writing private passenger automobile insurance in this state may continue to write such insurance if the insurer writes homeowners’ insurance in another state but not in this state, unless the insurer writing private passenger automobile insurance in this state is affiliated with an insurer writing homeowners’ insurance in this state.”
Also, GEICO and Progressive don’t write homeowners in any other state on their paper – they simply serve as an agent. Hence, they don’t have to offer homeowner’s insurance in FL if they want to offer auto.
How convenient for Geico and Progressive. Also being affiliated with Citizens counts, that is why State Farm, Allstate etc.. can still write auto. There you go.
Just to clarify – State Farm and Allstate do still write homeowner’s policies through their own companies – even if they are constantly trying to reduce the amount of homeowner’s policies they write, whether through non-renewals or placing policies with other companies (domestic companies or Citizens). That’s how they can still write auto. “Affiliated” isn’t defined in that statue, but writing with Citizens wouldn’t count for permitting either Allstate or State Farm to write auto policies w/out writing any homeowner’s.
Just to clarify with you, Allstate told me if I didn’t change my auto to their company, they were cancelling my homeowners after 32 yrs. That is not a maybe but a “they did it”.
I thought North Carolina had a 45 day notice for non-renewal. Way to go Allstate for coming up with a loop hole, and shame on the NC Dept of Insurance for letting them get away with it. Even though they are getting renewal quotes for their former customers, they are still non-renewing policies. Next they will require a life insurance policy to write a homeowners.
I contacted the NCDOI and was told that NC didn’t require homeowners insurance. That’s why they don’t care to get involved. When I wrote back to them to tell that to mortgage companies, they didn’t write me back.
They tried to cancel homeowners here in Louisiana so the commissioner told them to pack up their auto business as well. They had a change of mind but would up offering a high wind deductible or no wind depending on location at renewal.
Allstate used to be a company that was respected. Now their name is associated with swindlers and cheats. After 32 years, Allstate is cancelling my homeowners because I do not have my auto with them. Helluva company. I can’t wait to put it on Facebook. I hope they lose all their business.
I found out just today that I was without homeowners’ insurance because I don’t have auto insurance with Allstate, after nearly seven years of coverage with not a single claim. My house was struck by lightning today.
I called the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to find out if they were tracking this issue or if they had counts of the number of other States where similar actions are permitted. They did not at the moment but I can imagine that, if enough readers contact them, they might be persuaded to make a count. Concurrently, I cannot say enough negative things about Allstate and I highly recommend that no one do business with Allstate at any time for any reason.
We just got the Allstate letter re dropping our homeowners policy because we did not bundle our auto. The letter also basically said we were not eligible to use them….at all. We live in western South Carolina. They even gave as another reason the fact our home is over 10 years old!
I have them now but i will not buy there auto because its to high.Geico is way better.I will not be forced to buy there auto just to have home coverage.I will just give my check to someone else.I have called several other companies with similar rates that dont require you to bundle.They took the risk and now they are paying out thats somehow my problem??!@!!!
I also have been one of the abused victims of Allstate’s policy bundling garbage. Even though I will never do business with them and will advise others who inquire of their shady dealings, the company they transfer HO people to are mailing out fake refund checks to their policy holders. What has happened to freedom of choice when it comes to their practices.
Wow and “Tying” in NJ is illegal.
same in California
Is North Carolina high risk from wind and hail? It seems to me that Allstate is dropping high profit, low risk business because they can’t have the low profit, high risk auto business. If they got the auto business their loss ratio on the home business would rise because the multi-policy discount drops the premium. Am I seeing this incorrectly? Why dump the part of the book that pays the most?
I’m sure Allstate knows which lines are profitable.
Agreed, and in catastrophe prone states like the Carolinas, coastal, Georgia, and Florida that profitable line is auto.
It looks like the agents in NC are under the gun to sell auto if that would save the home. Loss ratios are lower when there is companion business but as an agent I really cannot understand all that lost of premium & bad feelings will out weight the loses in claims. The actuaries who make these numbers work never face the public so it becomes a math game.I will say this for certain that NJ made the decision not to sell Home for the last 5 years and lost millions but who knows, maybe Al Gore’s Tsunami is right around the corner.Time will be the judge.
The problem is the rates on homeowners or not high enough to justify writing the business. The state has a fund (which has inadequate funds in it) to cover excess losses from a Hurricane. Once the fund runs out all insurance companies are assessed a proportionate fee for the shortage based upon the percent of business they write in the state. The more they write the more the assessment would be. Statistics show that auto/home combined accounts have lower loss ratios. They are just making a financial decision.
That should be a pretty easy decision – immediately drop Allstate and let it serve as a lesson to never do business with this company.
The homeowners insurance market in NC is a mess. Several companies including Nationwide and Erie are doing consent to rate on all monoline homeowners policies. Our past two insurance commissioners have been very consumer friendly, which is good. As a result of that very few if any carriers are able to be profitable on homeowners insurance. We are an independent agency and only one of our carriers will allow us to write monoline homeowners. We have a fund of approx $2 billion if we have a hurricane. If the fund’s limits are exhausted carriers will be assessed based on their premium volume in NC>
NC is starting to look like Florida.
I agree, only here in Florida, they only want they auto. LOts of redlining
Thank you for the explanation.
I write the whole country and my carriers dont like North Carolina. I think it is entirely fair that Allstate is doing this and it needs to be done in Florida as well. I dont think it’s fair that State Farm insures a person’s home while they have their auto with Geico or Progressive, neither of whom sell home insurance which is the most difficult to buy.
Same thing in Florida, insurance commissioners are doing us no favors.
We have lost business due to one of our carriers doing consent to rate and we have also picked up some accounts due to Nationwide’s consent to rate and Allstate’s non-renewal. It isn’t the easiest thing for our insureds to understand either, especially in this economy.
Even with consent to rate, their premiums are very affordable.
FLagent/insured….I don’t think it’s fair for a company to try to force you to use their auto insurance service. Allstate used to be my auto agent until I was able to get coverage for 1/2 as much elsewhere. Now they are canceling my homeowners after 32 years. Do you think that’s fair?
Its no secret that for about the past 12 years homeowners rates across the country have been underpriced. It is foolish to expect one company such as Geico to cherry pick insurance risk and leave the dificult problems to others. I applaud Allstate on this move even though I don’t like them as an independent agency. More carriers should follow their move across the entire country. If they did perhaps rates would level out and come down slightly
I applaud them too and its difficult to comprehend how any insurance agent who truly understands the business doesnt get why Allstate is doing this. Since I write a lot of business in NC, I understand it and I am in Florida. And no, I dont represent Allstate, but I take a lot of business from them.
first of all, how do you know if GEICO does not do HO or rental? have ou even called to find out? don’t put in judgement if you truly don’t know… also, many homes/rentals along the coastline are not covered by many companies due to the risk already associated by living there… make the appropriate statements before you find out that your wrong…
Geico does not write homeowners they have an agreement in place with a broker who places it with Travelers.
I have to disagree with this. Right now, for most consumers, it is about price. So, if it is cheaper overall to place homeowners with one carrier and auto with another, that is what the consumer will do. Sometimes, having the multi-policy discount does not equate to a cheaper premium.
I agree as an independent agent we love competiting against the captive carriers. We know in almost every case we have at least one line of business which will be drastically better priced. Which almost always outwieghs the “so called discounts” from multipolicy discounts.
It’s not about right now pricing ‘Just a thought’. It’s about long term ability to write business in the state. Allstate’s got a lot of problems but i think they will look back positively at this decision in 5 years. Maybe sooner.
It is time for all consumers to drop allstate in every state regardless what type of insurance homeowners, auto to show Allstate the true meaning of how to treat a consumer. For insurance companies it is a great gravy train ride when you pic and choose. Part of the equation is it is regulated by the state and those in charge at state level come from where? The Insurance industry itself. (Poor regulatory pratice drives rates higher for less coverage leaves consumers with little coverage for the dollar.
It’s time to revamp insurance industry in this country,truely open the market place and if you want to be in a particular state you must write all lines of insurance if you offer it in other states.If not then you will loose all options of writting insurance. Then good luck with your business then.
It is my belief this action is a violation of more than two (2) North Carolina insurance laws.
First, it is considered an enducement for these homeowners to buy their auto insurance through Allstate. According to a NCDOI agency examiner, merely requiring a prospect to pay for an driving record (MVR) and giving them credit for their payment when they purchase personal auto insurance is an enducement.
Second, this action could be in violation of both North Carolina and Federal “Unfair Trade Practices”. I believe the action would be considered coersion.
The question really is: “Does Commissioner Wayne Godwin have the political will to make Allstate obey the law?” I don’t believe he wants to upset his campaign contributors.
It sounds like Allstate (the “Good Hands” company) have their good hands into their clients’ pockets.
The answer is to this problem lies in the free market system. Simply do what Bank of America’s clients did and move their business to Allstate’s competitors.
How can a company who pushes 15% product ROE now tie/mandate multi-line into the mix? Homeowner should stand on its own and so should auto; this goes against good and solid underwriting standards, which seems to be happing more and more. If you’re losing money in HO, why would you still provide a Multi-line discount that drops the average premium by 5%-10%, that makes no sense to me, but that’s just me? Stop blaming profitability on CAT’s or a department that will not allow you to raise rates and put the blame on a company with one of the highest expense ratios in the industry today.
How can a company who pushes 15% product ROE now tie multi-line into the mix? Homeowner should stand on its own and so should auto; this goes against good and solid underwriting standards, which seems to be happing more and more. If you’re losing money in HO, why would you still provide a Multi-line discount that drops the average premium by 5%-10%, that makes no sense to me, but that’s just me? Stop blaming profitability on CAT’s or a department that will not allow you to raise rates and put the blame on a company with one of the highest expense ratios in the industry today.
I wish we could put this as a commercial on TV out here in CA. to show they aren’t as wonderful as their commercials portray them
Just rotten what they are doing
IT is amazing to me..I am an insurance agent in Florida where Allstate pulled out of here as fast as hell, not wanting to writing homeowners or property of any kind, but they advertize 24/7 to write auto insuance with them. My opinion is you either write all types of policies in a state or get out all together. Share the risk. You don’t get to pick only the cream of the crop risk!
now if they write all polices homeowners and auto in every other state, you would think they should be able to write them in FL… but then again, it’s a business… the fl insurance commish can’t tell them how to operate as far as to which type insurance to write or not write… if they just want to write an auto policy and not homeowners, then they should be able to… truly — FL does have problems with their homeowners and i can see that citizens will be tasked heavily when a hurricane does come…
It seems like coercion to me to too. It’s one thing to decide not to write a line of business in a certain area but to insist you must purchase another product to retain the one you already bought is ridiculous.
As a point of clarification, FL has a law (627.4055) that says: “Effective January 1, 2008, no insurer writing private passenger automobile insurance in this state may continue to write such insurance if the insurer writes homeowners’ insurance in another state but not in this state, unless the insurer writing private passenger automobile insurance in this state is affiliated with an insurer writing homeowners’ insurance in this state.”
Also, GEICO and Progressive don’t write homeowners in any other state on their paper – they simply serve as an agent. Hence, they don’t have to offer homeowner’s insurance in FL if they want to offer auto.
How convenient for Geico and Progressive. Also being affiliated with Citizens counts, that is why State Farm, Allstate etc.. can still write auto. There you go.
Just to clarify – State Farm and Allstate do still write homeowner’s policies through their own companies – even if they are constantly trying to reduce the amount of homeowner’s policies they write, whether through non-renewals or placing policies with other companies (domestic companies or Citizens). That’s how they can still write auto. “Affiliated” isn’t defined in that statue, but writing with Citizens wouldn’t count for permitting either Allstate or State Farm to write auto policies w/out writing any homeowner’s.
Just to clarify with you, Allstate told me if I didn’t change my auto to their company, they were cancelling my homeowners after 32 yrs. That is not a maybe but a “they did it”.
The good news is all those effected should wake up and call an independent agent for the proper balance of price, security and quality counseling.
I thought North Carolina had a 45 day notice for non-renewal. Way to go Allstate for coming up with a loop hole, and shame on the NC Dept of Insurance for letting them get away with it. Even though they are getting renewal quotes for their former customers, they are still non-renewing policies. Next they will require a life insurance policy to write a homeowners.
I contacted the NCDOI and was told that NC didn’t require homeowners insurance. That’s why they don’t care to get involved. When I wrote back to them to tell that to mortgage companies, they didn’t write me back.
They tried to cancel homeowners here in Louisiana so the commissioner told them to pack up their auto business as well. They had a change of mind but would up offering a high wind deductible or no wind depending on location at renewal.
Really great company….
Allstate used to be a company that was respected. Now their name is associated with swindlers and cheats. After 32 years, Allstate is cancelling my homeowners because I do not have my auto with them. Helluva company. I can’t wait to put it on Facebook. I hope they lose all their business.
I found out just today that I was without homeowners’ insurance because I don’t have auto insurance with Allstate, after nearly seven years of coverage with not a single claim. My house was struck by lightning today.
Why didn’t you replace your coverage when you got the notice that your Allstate policy was being canceled?
I called the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to find out if they were tracking this issue or if they had counts of the number of other States where similar actions are permitted. They did not at the moment but I can imagine that, if enough readers contact them, they might be persuaded to make a count. Concurrently, I cannot say enough negative things about Allstate and I highly recommend that no one do business with Allstate at any time for any reason.
We just got the Allstate letter re dropping our homeowners policy because we did not bundle our auto. The letter also basically said we were not eligible to use them….at all. We live in western South Carolina. They even gave as another reason the fact our home is over 10 years old!
I have them now but i will not buy there auto because its to high.Geico is way better.I will not be forced to buy there auto just to have home coverage.I will just give my check to someone else.I have called several other companies with similar rates that dont require you to bundle.They took the risk and now they are paying out thats somehow my problem??!@!!!
I also have been one of the abused victims of Allstate’s policy bundling garbage. Even though I will never do business with them and will advise others who inquire of their shady dealings, the company they transfer HO people to are mailing out fake refund checks to their policy holders. What has happened to freedom of choice when it comes to their practices.