Posted on 12/08/2006 6:17:12 AM PST by Hydroshock
NEW YORK - Allstate Corp., the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, said Thursday it will stop writing new homeowner policies in New Jersey on Feb. 5, citing concern a hurricane might strike the state.
The state's second-largest home insurer after State Farm said the change will not affect 230,000 homeowners who already have policies with the company.
Allstate will no longer write new policies for owners of homes, condominiums, mobile homes and landlords. It said it will also not renew policies for about 300 commercial customers in eight coastal counties.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Yes, State Farm. And if your insurance company is publicly traded, just by stock in it, and then if they rip you off you will get paid in dividends.
Well, for starters, they've been shutting down refineries for years and then claim limited capacity and raise prices.
"Of all the slimeball businesses out there, insurance companies are right up there with oil companies and legal firms."
Absolutely. I'm a capitalist, of course, but there are certain businesses that should exist above and beyond simple profit. Other examples, IMHO, include nursing homes and childcare centers.
But I digress, insurance companies are a necessary evil, but that doesn't mean they have to take the "evil" part to heart so strongly...
Taking a mortgage is a choice, not a mandate. Dodging responsibility for our own risks is a choice, not a mandate.
The bank doesn't have to loan us money, and the insurance company doesn't have to accept our risk. Thank goodness they do so anyway.
It is because of them that our lives are as good as they are. I suppose we can be ungrateful and thankless, but; they certainly do not deserve such vitriol.
The free market solution!
Just wait until Trent Lott's lawsuit, aided by his scum brother-in-law, Dickie Scruggs, comes up on the calendar.
It's going to be the worst thing that happens to insurance companies in our lifetime if they win. (But why wouldn't they win, in front of a jury of people who also think the insurance companies should pay for something not in their policy, huh?)
Underwriters and lawyers are mortal enemies, not co-conspirators.
Yes, and extremely better for a 20-something who is not overweight with a college education in terms of health insurance compared to a 40-something or 50-something with a few extra pounds and only a high school degree.
But think of how happy you'll be when you finally do collect!
I'm not fan of the insurance business either, but it is a business and they have to make certain decisions. It is a heavily-regulated industry, perhaps the most heavily-regulated industry we have except for the nuclear industry and the banking industry.
Insurance companies have to maintain what is called a claim reserve, an amount of liquidity that covers what might reasonably expected they would have to provide to cover policyholder casualty losses. In the event of an unexpected, sudden drawdown of this reserve, they must reconstitute it quickly and right the balance between possible claims and the amount of reserve. That means either raising premium rates or reducing exposure, or both. Allstate is probably focusing on limiting future liabilities to protect current policyholders, and will likely be raising rates on existing policies to replenish their reserves. I know my homeowners rates have gone up, and I am nowhere near a coastline, and haven't had any casualty losses for a good number of years now. But because of the spread-the-risk basis of the insurance business, we all pay a larger amount to keep the pie whole.
That said, I am wondering if cutting off new applicants completely was really the only option? Maybe offering new policies at a higher rate would have had the same effect as limiting the future claims liability. The secondary effect would be writing fewer [policies, which is what they got anyway when they nixed the new applicants.
Alot of people that pay premiums in most cases never file claims for total loses in regards to homes. In Cane country (Like where I live) , it's for damage on structures that can be salvaged like roofs. So if I have a policy for 10 years with zero claims and then my roof gets damaged and is replaced at $8,000 or so, and I have paid $12,000 ( I pay about $1,800 on $250,000 home probably will shoot up over $2000 next year ) in premiums during that time span, is it ethical for them to cut you lose after one fricken claim? Better yet if you have paid for that time span and you have no claims at all, is it? Then when one of the big boy companies leave, the smaller ones raise their premiums accordingly because people have no other place to turn too.
Try telling your mortage company you are not buying insurance.
Ha, ha, ha!
Extended warranties are not insurance.
ROFLMAO. Around here we refer to those as "Christmas Claims!"
For all the wailing going on on this thread about the big bad insurance companies, there ARE two sides to this story.
One of my favorite stories is the woman in Charlotte who tried to convince my husband that the little "arc" under the door lock (where her keys had OBVIOUSLY scarred the doors for years) was caused by Hurricane Hugo!
"Many Jersey people have the mob mentality, soak the system. I'm sure this is about fraud and false claims."
I can't believe you said that. I would expect a comment like that from someone at DU. Here's the real reason. It took a simple "google" to find this:
Allstate to stop writing new homeowner policies in 3 states
December 8, 2006
HARTFORD, Conn. --Allstate Corp., Connecticut's biggest homeowners insurer, will stop taking on new homeowners policies in the state as part of its efforts to control its exposure to areas at risk of hurricanes.
The Northbrook, Ill.-based insurer plans to stop writing new homeowners policies in Connecticut Feb. 12. It is taking similar steps in New Jersey and Delaware, and has said previously that it will stop selling policies in some coastal New York counties.
Allstate, which had a 13.2 percent market share in Connecticut at the end of 2005, says the decision will not affect current policyholders. It also plans to continue writing new auto insurance policies in those three states.
"The risk of a catastrophic event occurring in New England has increased dramatically," said Tim Knapp, Allstate's Northeast regional counsel. "If we don't start dispersing our risk in the marketplace, that's not good for anybody."
Allstate said it will keep its 180 Connecticut offices open and has arranged for its agents to offer homeowner policies from six other insurers. The company has about 121,000 homeowners policies in Connecticut.
Allstate spokesman Brett Ludwig said, "This isn't about one quarter's profits or one year's profits," and that Allstate is trying to do what's right for the company, its customers and agents in the long term.
Hurricane Katrina and other storms cost Allstate $5.7 billion in 2005. Like other insurers, Allstate believes it needs to better limit its exposure to future hurricanes, company officials said. The reasons include climate trends, new computer models showing potential future storm damage and soaring reinsurance costs -- the protection insurers buy for themselves.
Thursday's announcement came two days after the state Insurance Department reversed a June ruling and prohibited insurance companies from requiring shoreline homeowners to install expensive storm shutters. Allstate said its decision was not connected to the state ruling.
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Information from: The Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com
When I first started working as a court reporter, I did a lot of personal injury work for defense attorneys; most of them worked for insurance companies.
One night when I was typing a deposition from some whining woman who had "soft tissue injury," I asked my husband, who is in the insurance business, why they didn't just pay these people so I wouldn't have to listen to them whine and lie.
He pointed out to me that they HAD already paid the people with legitimate claims.......which, of course, I could have figured out from the testimony most of them give. ("I can't even lift a CD to put in my DVD player.")
"Should someone who sky dives every day, pay the same rate for health insurance as someone who doesn't?"
for HEALTH insurance, I think you could legitimately argue for lower rates for sky-divers.
LIFE insurance, well that is another matter......
You're smart. Actually, my husband was almost angry enough to do something like that. These people had the nerve to have a customer service person call us afterwards to see how we found their service. She got an earful and didn't know what to say.
WOW life is hard on that poor woman. /sarcasm
They pulled out of South Florida, for the most part, long ago -- after Andrew, to be exact.
Last year, they tried to cancel the policies of homeowners in Brooklyn, NY, who lived within a certain number of miles of man-made Prospect Park Lake -- due to the threat of "tidal surge." LOL!
They didn't get away with that one, but you can bet they'll keep trying.
Why would YOU say that?
During Hurricane Isabelle, the most claims filed were in New Hanover Country, North Carolina, a county that wasn't even TOUCHED by Isabelle.
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