Friday, January 18, 2008

Florida and Allstate Insurance Toe-to-Toe

My advice to people moving to Florida and shopping for homeowners insurance is to always check with your current carrier (assuming you're happy with the rates and service you receive) to see if they offer policies in Florida.

Well, for the time being, if your current insurer is Allstate, you're out of luck. Allstate is locked in a battle with Florida's Insurance Commissioner over documents regarding the rates Allstate charges for hurricane insurance.

Florida's Insurance Commisioner originally ordered Allstate to stop selling homeowner's policies until the matter was resolved, but has now gone a step further and has ordered Allstate to stop writing ALL new policies, including automobile policies.

I don't expect this little tif to last too long...I can't see how the citizen's of Florida come out a winner in having one of the largest insurers not being able to write new policies. Granted, this does not effect policies currently in place or their renewals. But in my mind, healthy competition is about the only thing that ever seems to keep prices down.

Update 1: That was fast...by order of the 1st District Court of Appeals, Allstate is back open for business.