I do not agree that the companies should be assessed for the potential failures of the state run pool. At the same time, I don’t see any other companies leaving NC. The other companies I work with want to write more homeowners business in NC. Farmers biggest problem is that their rating system is terrible. It takes me twice as long to rate an account than it does other companies. They just started writing business in NC. Now they want out after only a few years. It sounds like poor management by Farmers is using the state of NC as an excuse.
Bill has it right….Florida has need of someone that will not play politics with our insurance market. The Governor and legislature has decided to go head to head with the insurance industry in Florida while puting political gains above sound business decisions.
However, I think all this is about to change as way stare down Fay coming our way in the next few days. This governor and legislature will now have to answer to their constituents as to why they are in the predicament they will be in if Fay does any real damage fo Florida.
Watch out New York….this company has no clue how to handle standard lines nor do they have actuaries or product managers who understand the market’s they manage…and…they will listen to NO ONE who has the experience or knowledge of certain state areas and could be of help to company decision makers….very arrogant leadershipo at this company.
Thanks for your opinion Colleen! You seem pretty smart, why don’t you start an insurance company and concentrate on coastal property coverage. Oh yeah…..and be sure to chip in on the state fund when after a Cat. 5 hurricane blows through!
Quinn, you sound like a bitter Farmers employee. No need jump on Colleen. I agree that the system in NC is flawed. What I don’t understand is why other companies are aggressively writing new business in NC and Farmers is jumping ship. If it was really that bad other companies would have left before Farmers.
No actually I am not a Farmers employee, nor do I work in personal lines insurance at all. Having said that, it would appear that Farmers may be in a different situation than some of the other carriers in the state of NC due to their really low overall percentage of homeowner writings in the state. Depending on how the state has decided to make each carrier participate in the Cat. assessment Farmers (unlike Allstate, State Farm, etc….) may feel that its simply not worth the risk considering their relatively small writings in the state. They would probably have a different stance if they wrote 25-50% of the homes in the state and could use this large amount of premium to offset their participation in the Cat. fund after a storm. Just a guess. The point is….this is their decision and its not Colleen or anyone else’s place to judge them as having bad management, too dumb to take advise, etc…… Actually it would seem just the opposite as at least they are smart enough to walk away before the next hurricane hits. Sometimes the AIGs of the world get too focused on just the premium and don’t make these type of smart business decisions. And yes, NC should be careful because FL is a good example of what happens when the State trys too hard to control the insurance marketplace. The good news here is that NC homeowners do have plenty of other choices so no one should be that upset with Farmers.
I was surprised to learn that Farmers only had a 1% market share in NC. No doubt that is the bigger reason they are leaving and being allowed to leave. Every company has limited resources to allocate. If they can’t make a bigger dent than 1%, I’d make the same decision.
Put your resources where you can get a bigger return.
I am a FIG agent in Texas. I congradulate Farmers for making a stand in NC and making a good business decision – I wish the other carriers had the guts to following Farmers’ lead. Farmers is simply doing the same thing they did in Texas in 2002 – and it worked! A judge added mold removal coverage to the Texas homeowners form B policy and told the insurance commissioner to reword the policy. After 18 months and the commissioner had done nothing to resolve the problem, Farmers sued the commissioner of insurance on 8/10/2002. The commissioner counter-sued FIG on 8/15/2002 – hence FIG had to either non-renew their home policies or the commissioner had to comply with the judge’s order to allow different forms of policies. FIG did’t win the battle in Texas but, rather Texas consumers won because they had the guts to stand up to a government regulator that simply wasn’t doing their job in the best interest of the taxpayers.
We have a similar problem in Texas with the windstorm insurance association. At some point in time carriers must make good decisions and force government agencies to do their job.
I actually received a call yesterday afternoon from Farmers. They called to explain their reasoning. I was happy that they called and know have a better understanding of why they did it. It was simply a business decision. The fact of the matter is that the wind pool in NC is broken. Unfortunately it will probably take a severe hurricane and a big mess to get it fixed. I like commissioner Jim Long and think that he has done a good job. At the same time he has not been very supportive of the carriers themselves. Now that he is retiring it will be up to the new commissioner to fix the wind pool mess before NC ends up like Florida.
Over my 27 years as a FIG agent I have had to write hundreds of home policies with other carriers the several times they quit writting new policies here in Texas. I want to make sure the NC Farmers agents know that their E&O policy with FIG may not cover home policies if and when Farmers decides to enter the NC market again. Farmers added exclusion ‘1A’ to the agent’s E&O policy wih Arch Insurance. Exclusion 1A allows Farmers to instruct Arch not to honor the agent’s coverage if Farmers reenters the market and the policy could have been placed with FIG the date of loss – not the last renewal but, the date of loss.
If you need to replace your FIG E&O policy I suggest that you contact UFAA (United Farmers Agents Association) ASAP!
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I do not agree that the companies should be assessed for the potential failures of the state run pool. At the same time, I don’t see any other companies leaving NC. The other companies I work with want to write more homeowners business in NC. Farmers biggest problem is that their rating system is terrible. It takes me twice as long to rate an account than it does other companies. They just started writing business in NC. Now they want out after only a few years. It sounds like poor management by Farmers is using the state of NC as an excuse.
Bill has it right….Florida has need of someone that will not play politics with our insurance market. The Governor and legislature has decided to go head to head with the insurance industry in Florida while puting political gains above sound business decisions.
However, I think all this is about to change as way stare down Fay coming our way in the next few days. This governor and legislature will now have to answer to their constituents as to why they are in the predicament they will be in if Fay does any real damage fo Florida.
It won’t be pretty.
Watch out New York….this company has no clue how to handle standard lines nor do they have actuaries or product managers who understand the market’s they manage…and…they will listen to NO ONE who has the experience or knowledge of certain state areas and could be of help to company decision makers….very arrogant leadershipo at this company.
Thanks for your opinion Colleen! You seem pretty smart, why don’t you start an insurance company and concentrate on coastal property coverage. Oh yeah…..and be sure to chip in on the state fund when after a Cat. 5 hurricane blows through!
Quinn, you sound like a bitter Farmers employee. No need jump on Colleen. I agree that the system in NC is flawed. What I don’t understand is why other companies are aggressively writing new business in NC and Farmers is jumping ship. If it was really that bad other companies would have left before Farmers.
No actually I am not a Farmers employee, nor do I work in personal lines insurance at all. Having said that, it would appear that Farmers may be in a different situation than some of the other carriers in the state of NC due to their really low overall percentage of homeowner writings in the state. Depending on how the state has decided to make each carrier participate in the Cat. assessment Farmers (unlike Allstate, State Farm, etc….) may feel that its simply not worth the risk considering their relatively small writings in the state. They would probably have a different stance if they wrote 25-50% of the homes in the state and could use this large amount of premium to offset their participation in the Cat. fund after a storm. Just a guess. The point is….this is their decision and its not Colleen or anyone else’s place to judge them as having bad management, too dumb to take advise, etc…… Actually it would seem just the opposite as at least they are smart enough to walk away before the next hurricane hits. Sometimes the AIGs of the world get too focused on just the premium and don’t make these type of smart business decisions. And yes, NC should be careful because FL is a good example of what happens when the State trys too hard to control the insurance marketplace. The good news here is that NC homeowners do have plenty of other choices so no one should be that upset with Farmers.
I was surprised to learn that Farmers only had a 1% market share in NC. No doubt that is the bigger reason they are leaving and being allowed to leave. Every company has limited resources to allocate. If they can’t make a bigger dent than 1%, I’d make the same decision.
Put your resources where you can get a bigger return.
I am a FIG agent in Texas. I congradulate Farmers for making a stand in NC and making a good business decision – I wish the other carriers had the guts to following Farmers’ lead. Farmers is simply doing the same thing they did in Texas in 2002 – and it worked! A judge added mold removal coverage to the Texas homeowners form B policy and told the insurance commissioner to reword the policy. After 18 months and the commissioner had done nothing to resolve the problem, Farmers sued the commissioner of insurance on 8/10/2002. The commissioner counter-sued FIG on 8/15/2002 – hence FIG had to either non-renew their home policies or the commissioner had to comply with the judge’s order to allow different forms of policies. FIG did’t win the battle in Texas but, rather Texas consumers won because they had the guts to stand up to a government regulator that simply wasn’t doing their job in the best interest of the taxpayers.
We have a similar problem in Texas with the windstorm insurance association. At some point in time carriers must make good decisions and force government agencies to do their job.
I actually received a call yesterday afternoon from Farmers. They called to explain their reasoning. I was happy that they called and know have a better understanding of why they did it. It was simply a business decision. The fact of the matter is that the wind pool in NC is broken. Unfortunately it will probably take a severe hurricane and a big mess to get it fixed. I like commissioner Jim Long and think that he has done a good job. At the same time he has not been very supportive of the carriers themselves. Now that he is retiring it will be up to the new commissioner to fix the wind pool mess before NC ends up like Florida.
Over my 27 years as a FIG agent I have had to write hundreds of home policies with other carriers the several times they quit writting new policies here in Texas. I want to make sure the NC Farmers agents know that their E&O policy with FIG may not cover home policies if and when Farmers decides to enter the NC market again. Farmers added exclusion ‘1A’ to the agent’s E&O policy wih Arch Insurance. Exclusion 1A allows Farmers to instruct Arch not to honor the agent’s coverage if Farmers reenters the market and the policy could have been placed with FIG the date of loss – not the last renewal but, the date of loss.
If you need to replace your FIG E&O policy I suggest that you contact UFAA (United Farmers Agents Association) ASAP!