Allstate seeks 14% rollback: Request falls short of state estimates

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – March 13, 2007 – Allstate Floridian Insurance Co., the state’s third-largest home insurer, wants to cut its property insurance rates by an average of 14 percent statewide. But Allstate Floridian’s proposed premium cuts are far less than the estimated reduction of 24 percent Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said recently that the state’s property insurers should be able to shave rates.
Allstate Floridian will have to justify why the decrease it plans – and the proposed 13 percent decrease by its subsidiary, Allstate Floridian Indemnity Co. – is lower than the state’s estimate. Company spokesman Adam Shores said Monday the figures are based on Allstate Floridian’s risk exposure, and “given the state of the overall [insurance] market, we feel that this is the appropriate rate which will help us move forward.”
County estimates of Allstate Floridian’s rate decrease weren’t available Monday. With its rate request filed, Allstate Floridian – the state’s third-largest insurance company – is now free to proceed with plans to drop 106,000 home and condo customers and offer them coverage with a new insurer, Ormond Beach-based Royal Palm Insurance Co.
Allstate Floridian is the second of the state’s five largest insurance companies to cut its rates based on Florida’s new insurance law. Nationwide Insurance Co. of Florida, the state’s fourth-largest insurer, last week requested a statewide average decrease of 4.6 percent on its premiums. Under the new law, all of the state’s property insurers have until Thursday to submit rate reduction plans to insurance regulators.
The company was temporarily prohibited from shedding policies under a Jan. 31 emergency order from Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet. But now that Allstate Floridian has asked to lower its rates, it is free to conduct business as usual, and that includes not renewing customers’ policies.
Shores said any customers who already have received notices from the company that their policies won’t be renewed would be issued new letters, telling them they have 100 days until their policies expire. He wasn’t sure Monday when those letters would start hitting customers’ mailboxes.
If approved by the state, the revised Allstate Floridian rates will show up in policies issued on or after June 1. The Office of Insurance Regulation is still reviewing Allstate Floridian’s request, department spokesman Bob Lotane said. Since neither Allstate Floridian nor Nationwide’s requests match the state’s estimated savings, the companies will have to show why they’re different.
“Are these numbers going to stand up to review? We don’t know that,” Lotane said.
Gov. Charlie Crist also wasn’t worried that the companies’ savings didn’t match state estimates. Of Allstate Floridian’s proposed 14 percent cut, Crist said, “When was that ever heard of?”
“It’s a new day. It may not be 20 percent or 15 percent, but a 14 percent reduction? ... I’m delighted. I’m not going to complain about rates going down.”
Copyright © 2007 South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Kathy Bushouse; with Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel, contributing. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

FAST FACTS....

ORLANDO currently ranks 9th in the nation in terms of office space under construction. The region is 3rd nationally in terms of growth in inventory over the past five years, boasting an increase of 7.87 million square feet of office space (a 13% increase). And, Cushman and Wakefield, have projected that Orlando will be the top market in the nation in commercial real estate market performance for the next two years.

Source: Metro Orlando EDC


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Three new Florida Web sites make government more accessible

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – March 6, 2007 – Three new Florida Web sites attempt to make state government more accessible, understandable and responsive to insurance problems.
Insurance: www.fldfs.com/ica Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink joined Florida’s new Insurance Consumer Advocate Bob Milligan on Monday to unveil a new Web site designed to educate Floridians about their vision for the position, as well as provide contact information for consumers with insurance-related questions:
“As I stated during the campaign, I want the Insurance Consumer Advocate to become a household name in Florida,” said Sink. “One of the first steps in strengthening the Insurance Consumer Advocate is educating Floridians about this position and how it serves the people.”
Open government: www.flgov.com/og_homeThe Open Government Web site features a video clip from Gov. Crist’s inaugural speech, in which he announced the office’s establishment. It includes information about Florida’s open government and public record laws for consumers, and links to other organizations that provide public record resources. Visitors can also access the Attorney General’s Open Government Mediation Program and the First Amendment Foundation.
The Office of Open Government Web site also lists state agency contacts charged with ensuring public record and Sunshine law compliance. Agency heads selected these contacts to serve as liaisons to the Office of Open Government. Consumers may also e-mail the Office of Open Government directly from the Web site.
Plain language initiative: www.flgov.com/pl_homeGov. Crist wants state documents and publications to be easier to read and understand. To accomplish that, the Plain Language Web site explains the purpose of this initiative and answers commonly asked questions, with examples of before-and-after documents edited to make the language easily understood. Floridians may request a translation of a state government document either online or by fax, and should receive a response within seven days.
Crist also told state agencies to review their communication strategies and then establish new standards and guidelines. As a result, the people of Florida should find future state publications and products easier to use. The Executive Order calls for agency reviews to be completed and procedures to be in place by April 2, 2007.

New Law Should Give Home Insurance Savings

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New law should give home insurance savings up to 50 percent
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – March 2, 2007 – Homeowners could see average property insurance savings ranging from around 10 percent in the Panhandle to more than half in South Florida because of a new law meant to lower rates, state insurance regulators said Thursday.
After two years of extensive hurricane damage, Floridians have seen their property insurance rates double and triple.
That led the Legislature to pass a sweeping new law in January that seeks in large part to give insurance companies more access to cheaper backup coverage, with the savings to be passed on to customers.
Insurance companies must make filings using the lower rates for new policies beginning June 1. For others, the savings will be seen when policies are renewed after June 1.
Actual discounts will vary fairly drastically, depending on a variety of factors including what is covered, where the home is, and how much coverage the resident has.
But the Office of Insurance Regulation said Thursday that some Miami-area households could see savings of about 53 percent off their homeowners policy.
Most companies can expect to cut more than 40 percent on average off the cost of the hurricane portion of customer’s premiums. The percentage of the drop from the overall premium will be a little lower, but the hurricane or wind damage portion of most policies accounts for much of the rate.
The average savings are lower in general in north Florida, where hurricane coverage is cheaper, and the highest in South Florida, particularly in the Miami area, where premiums are more expensive.
Copyright © 2007 South Florida Sun-Sentinel, David Royse. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.