Florida Insurers Fleeing from Trouble

It would seem that Mother Nature has finally gotten the best of Florida insurers. In March 2006, Nationwide Insurance Co. will begin dropping 35,000 Florida homeowner policies, but Allstate, the number three Florida insurer, is not to be outdone. In August, Allstate began to drop the first of 95,000 policies.

Like Nationwide, Allstate was also granted state permission to increase rates, with Allstate Floridian increasing by 8.6 percent and Allstate indemnity by 5.8 percent. Despite the fact that some "Allstate customers are already paying the increase, which the companies put into effect in July," and that both companies have a pending second rate request that could increase premiums by 26 percent, the extra money just is not enough of an incentive to keep Allstate Florida insurers put.

To the relief of some Floridians, State Farm, the largest Florida insurer with 925,000 policies, has not announced any intention of cutting policies. It has, however, requested an average 8.6 percent rate increase.