Besides State Farm Florida Insurance Company, other companies like Allstate Floridian, Nationwide Insurance, Travelers, Metropolitan Property & Casualty, Hartford Insurance Company and even Hanover Insurance Company too have been reported to be offloading policies; or, serving notifications of non-renewal. Most of the cross national home and property insurance companies discarded their policies and retired from Florida following their incurring immense losses after the 2002, 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons.
Smaller insurance companies champing at the bit to fill void
The latest announcement by State Farm Florida of its intention to vacate the home insurance market in Florida has caused fury on some fronts and serious concern for others. Even during good years, finding a good insurance deal is difficult for most Florida residents, specifically those living in coastal areas. Now, with the hurricane season having just begun, and with State Farm Florida’s decision to withdraw; there is a vacuum that insurance agents from smaller insurance firms are battling to service. Individuals facing the threat of losing insurance coverage are scrambling to find new insurers; but evaluating these and understanding the policies is a daunting task for most.
Why the skirmish?
The first point of attack for agents would be to sieve through and bring as many of the ‘creamy layer’ policy holders from the State Farm Florida fold. This requires agents to aggressively upscale market penetration, but since there are specific guidelines set by most of the smaller insurance companies, on regional and property owner profiles serviceable - the demand for policies is far greater than the notional supply. Florida insurance companies like ChoiceOne, Tower Hill, Travelers, Bankers, GMAC Home, Mercury, Liberty American, Citizens, American Strategic and Universal Property & Casualty are the most prominent and sought after insurers, and all their agents are trying to identify and lap up the best policy holders from the State Farm Florida void. With this tide of agents targeting home owners for their business, customers are confronted with having to speedily evaluate and consider all the choices, as and when these become available. But, reaching out directly to the insurance companies has been difficult because of the lack of awareness within the consumer pool - largely caused by the grasp large insurance held over the market. The fear that’s prevalent, is not finding insurance fast enough, at least to tide by the beginning of the hurricane season.
The agent-homeowner touchpoint
With policy providers unwilling to provide policies to specific profile of home owners and due to the general rates, many individuals find that the amount of policies is fast drying up. Insurers at the same time are finding it a difficult effort to locate the kind of people they would be immediately attracted to. At this time, online companies like RateElert.com using convergence technologies to bring together individuals with a specific requisite and insurers willing to cover those requirements; through leading-edge match making criterion available through their services. Also, companies like homeinsurancebuyers.org have ready R&D on deck that enable customers locate policy providers, and provide a premium service to help people locate the ideal insurance coverage that’s suited to their requirements.