The Hartford Dropping One-Third of Fla. Property Risks; Tower Hill Reconsiders

February 5, 2007

  • February 5, 2007 at 9:57 am
    Mjolnir says:
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    You know how when you walk out onto ice it creaks and groans? And how, as the ice gets thinner, it starts making cracking and snapping noises?

    Yeah…. I guess Florida lawmakers and residents don\’t have a lot of familiarity with ice….

  • February 5, 2007 at 10:32 am
    Outraged says:
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    It is ok if everyone stops writting new business and cancels / non-renews a several hundred thousand policies. The Gov and leadership of the legislature solved all the problems of the insurance market in Florida just a couple of weeks ago. The state run carrier, Citizens will lower their prices a little bit more to help and all will pay later with higher and even more assessements. One Term Charley – Thanks!!!

  • February 5, 2007 at 11:03 am
    Mark says:
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    Ok, everyone, lets here all the complaints about The Hartford that everyone wrote on here about Allstate\’s annoucement. I don\’t see anything about The Hartford arraging new coverage with someone other than Citizen here….

    That\’s what I thought.

  • February 5, 2007 at 2:35 am
    Mark says:
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    Let\’s hope Hartford doesn\’t make arrangements with other non-rated carriers. I\’ll be disappointed in Hartford if they did. I\’ll take a Citizens policy, backed by tax payer money, over the small non-rated carriers that Allstate \”partnered\” with any day. Allstate and their agents, should be ashamed of promoting carriers, for example Royal Palm, as \”A\” rated. The Demotech rating is worthless.

  • February 5, 2007 at 3:04 am
    Independant Agent says:
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    Am I the only one to glean what is really significant from this article – the Hartford is canning 38,000 homeowners produced by their independant agents and leaving alone another 80,000 they write thru AARP!!

  • February 5, 2007 at 3:28 am
    Fred says:
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    You hit the nail on the head Independant Agent. Hartford has been going direct to consumers for sometime (AARP) and now they are dropping all the independent agents (most of them) and keeping the AARP clients.
    Seems hard to believe.
    Can hardly wait until I am old enough to join AARP

  • February 5, 2007 at 3:45 am
    Jim says:
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    So the emergency order was a personal threat to Tower Hill from the Governor because Tower Hill non renewed the governors parents policy. Well Charlie look what you got us now. More non renewals and no where to go because the carriers that where left are now not sure what the emergency order REALLY said so they have stopped accepting new business.
    Charlie, enjoy it, it will be the fastest 4 years of your political career because you did exactly what the industry try to tell politicians would happen if you got aggressive, made things much worse and put consumers on the hook for Citizens with tax dollars. Why don\’t we ALL just not buy insurance and then look for the Feds to pays us when we have a claim, like all those folks in the center of the state that got whacked by tornadoes on Christmas day and again last week. Where do we go now Charlie???

  • February 5, 2007 at 5:02 am
    CRS says:
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    And this coming from a guy that asked Allstate agents for referrals for business they couldn\’t right. Nice! That\’s REAL nice! Idiot. Biting the hand that feeds you will eventually lead to crumbs. Did you bother to tell the customer that you dissed Royal Palm about that the company they were buying from you was small and Demotech rated, too? Yeah. I thought not. Big surprise.

  • February 6, 2007 at 9:53 am
    Orlando Agent says:
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    1) Don\’t any of you have a glimmer of an idea about the political power of AARP? Hartford is not against independent agents, per se. I would bet a nickel Hartford, even with all the king’s men, i.e. their attorneys, could not figure a way to get out of the contract they signed with AARP, just as Foremost Insurance Co., the largest writer of mobile homes in the nation, was unable to get out of a similar contract they made years ago with AARP regarding sales of mobile home insurance in Florida. It has nothing to do with Hartford’s or Foremost’s “loyalty” to the independent agents or our unique system of distribution. However, if contractually, the only way to protect the company is to non-renew the independent agents’ biz, then that is what they have to do. I don’t represent Hartford, but I do represent Foremost, and have since 1978. The latter, just barely, at this point!

    2) Matt: you are only partially right about Tom Gallagher. Worse than your accusations, the truth is: HE IS THE PERSON WHO WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN STARTING CITIZENS, POST HURRICANE ANDREW, IN THE FIRST PLACE. If he had any “grit”, he would have held out for another 6 months and the industry would have “righted” itself. Up until then, the only state sponsored property plan in place in Florida was the FWUA, fondly known as the “wind pool”. About this time last year, when Tom was then running for governor, he proudly reminded his audience, a group of independent agents, that Citizens was his “brainchild”. I thought I would toss my rubber chicken. So, I’m thankful for small favors: Crist VS Gallagher? Yes…and that’s just on the Republican side of the ballot! It could have been worse, but I’m not sure exactly how, from an agent’s point of view, from a property owner’s point of view, from a businessperson’s point of view OR from a taxpayer’s point of view, as the current scenario is pretty awful on all counts. I know, because I am an agent, a property owner, a business person and a taxpayer.

    3) My pet peeve: come on, surely you guys know the difference between ‘right’ and ‘write’ and ‘here’ and ‘hear’! Akkk! Sorry, my pet peeve, but it makes us all look unprofessional &/or illiterate.

    4) To lighten things up, here’s a limerick:

    There once was a governor named Crist
    Who delivered when consumers were pissed.
    Like turning water to wine,
    Free insurance he devined.
    Soon taxpayers will be slitting their wrists!

  • February 6, 2007 at 11:27 am
    Matt says:
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    The current market crisis has it\’s origins in the former DOI headed by Tom Gallagher. During the last soft market, the Florida DOI never met a rate decrease it didn\’t like. One of the reasons for STATE insurance departments existence is rate regulation. Someone forgot to tell Tom that rate regulation responsibility runs north and south. If the DOI had stood it\’s ground on rates, the bottom of the soft market would not have been so severe. Further, had Gallagher been responsible in setting initial Citizens rates, the entity would likely have had less exposure and better capitalization, thereby avoiding the assessments we were virtually assured would never be needed.



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