Design

State Farm Moves to Eliminate Florida Discounts: State Farm Florida, which will soon stop writing new homeowners insurance in the state, is now asking the legislature's permission to remove all the discounts that its remaining policyholders receive, giving those people what amounts to a significant rate increase. Clients receive discounts for such things as having your car and home insured by the same carrier, alarm systems, new plumbing and electrical wiring, hail resistant roofing, and the like. Those discounts, when taken in total, can reduce one's premium by roughly one third. State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, called the filing an "outrageous" way of "going around the law" to raise premiums without a formal rate increase. " The insurance companies always seem to find a way to help themselves and neglect the homeowner," he said. [emphasis added] A Missed Opportunity: Bernard Madoff's personal property is being meticulously...

Vicious Cycle: Saturday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that four of the top insurers in the state of Georgia have requested rate hikes for the coming year, affecting nearly 40% of the state's consumers. State Farm, First Liberty, Cotton States, and Nationwide have filed increases that fall between 5 and 11 percent, modest by insurance company standards but huge for the rest of the financial world. Rates are also on the rise in Illinois, Texas, and Florida among others . Even with such increases, Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine said consumers are doing better than those in neighboring states, where he said premiums have been rising at double-digit rates. “We are by far the cheapest in the Southeast,” he said. That makes you folks in Georgia feel A LOT better, doesn't it? Allstate On The Mend: The Wall Street Journal says Allstate has learned some tough lessons over the past year and is ready to bounce back. When the WSJ has something good to sa...