State Farm Stops New Home Insurance Policies in California

[Parsad]

Increased construction costs and wildfires are to blame.  Cheers!

 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/28/business/state-farm-california-insurance-wildfire/index.html

[fareastwarriors]

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is no longer there. 

[Parsad]

1 hour ago, fareastwarriors said:

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is no longer there. 

 

Removed the picket fence and put up a 10-foot wall of hedges!  Cheers!

[Red Lion]

Thankfully I got a State Farm policy just a couple months ago. I can say, State Farm is the absolute best if your house burns in a wildfire, but it looks like we might all be stuck on California (un)FAIR plan. 

[dwy000]

53 minutes ago, RedLion said:

Thankfully I got a State Farm policy just a couple months ago. I can say, State Farm is the absolute best if your house burns in a wildfire, but it looks like we might all be stuck on California (un)FAIR plan. 

I hope.youre not speaking from personal experience!!!

 

With bundling savings of auto policies this would imply SF is almost pulling out of California altogether.

 

I would guess this is a major public statement largely to pressure regulators to allow price increases. 

[Red Lion]

1 hour ago, dwy000 said:

I hope.youre not speaking from personal experience!!!

 

With bundling savings of auto policies this would imply SF is almost pulling out of California altogether.

 

I would guess this is a major public statement largely to pressure regulators to allow price increases. 

Professional experience as a somewhat related field. It’s not just price increases it’s forcing them to insure against wildfire risks and not pull coverage. 

[Spekulatius]

If you want to know how insurance in CA is going, just check out Mercury (MCY). Back when I lived in the state , I had insurance with them and paid ~$500 for a house worth $450k. It almost burned down in the 2017 wildfire - the fire stopped 2 blocks north of my house (sold it in 2015 after moving to the east coast).

 

MCY also got terrible management , imo. My insurance agent was really good though.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Spekulatius

[Parsad]

3 hours ago, dwy000 said:

I hope.youre not speaking from personal experience!!!

 

With bundling savings of auto policies this would imply SF is almost pulling out of California altogether.

 

I would guess this is a major public statement largely to pressure regulators to allow price increases. 

 

They aren't leaving the California market...they just can't take on any more risk unless premium pricing compensates them.  Their reinsurance costs are probably significantly higher this year for California, so they can't afford to write any more policies without adequate premium pricing to compensate for reinsurance costs.  Cheers!

[dwy000]

2 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

They aren't leaving the California market...they just can't take on any more risk unless premium pricing compensates them.  Their reinsurance costs are probably significantly higher this year for California, so they can't afford to write any more policies without adequate premium pricing to compensate for reinsurance costs.  Cheers!

I was referring to the fact that if you can't get the savings from bundling home and auto (because you don't offer home anymore) the auto side is likely to see volumes suffer quite a bit so it's not just the one p4oduct line that will shrink. 

 

At some point you simply can't put unrealistic caps on free market participants and not see the consumer suffer.

[Parsad]

2 minutes ago, dwy000 said:

I was referring to the fact that if you can't get the savings from bundling home and auto (because you don't offer home anymore) the auto side is likely to see volumes suffer quite a bit so it's not just the one p4oduct line that will shrink. 

 

At some point you simply can't put unrealistic caps on free market participants and not see the consumer suffer.

 

Oh sorry!  Yeah, you're definitely correct.  And I would imagine home insurance premiums would have to rise significantly in California over the next year since that's a lot of capacity that suddenly won't be there.  Consumers still getting squeezed!  Cheers!

[maxthetrade]

Allstate joins State Farm not writing new business in California: Allstate has stopped writing new homeowner, condominium and commercial insurance policies in California, the company confirmed to The Chronicle.

 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/insurance-allstate-fires-18130622.php