Big Insurer Says It Will Quit Florida Property Market

January 28, 2009

Rebuffed by regulators in its efforts to raise homeowner rates by nearly 50 percent, Florida’s largest private insurer of property announced Tuesday that it would shutter all its property insurance business in the state.

The decision, by State Farm Florida, a subsidiary of the giant insurer State Farm Mutual, affects more than a million policyholders and is another financial setback to a state with one of the nation’s highest foreclosure rates and rising unemployment. It could also increase the burden on a state-created insurance company, which must accept customers if they have nowhere else to go.

The announcement followed by two weeks a decision of the Florida insurance commissioner, Kevin McCarty, to reject the company’s request for a statewide homeowner rate increase of 47.1 percent.

Read Article: New York Times

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