TALLAHASSEE — Farmers Insurance Group announced Tuesday that it would no longer write new policies or renew existing homeowner, auto and umbrella policies, a day after Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis took to Twitter to threaten to take action if it did. “Hearing rumors @WeAreFarmers might pull out of Florida,” Patronis tweeted Monday afternoon. “If that’s true my office is going ...
Generally, insurance companies aren’t taking that risk. They can decline to renew your policy if they give you 120 days notice, so, for the most part, they are only insuring the next year.
This is all about the immediate risk of major hurricanes and the rapidly climbing costs of rebuilds. I know people in Colorado are really struggling to rebuild because costs have risen so much recently and insurance didn’t keep up. I recently moved insurers (to Farmers, ha) and increased my rebuild amount by nearly 30%. That certainly came with a policy hike, but gives me enough that I have reasonable confidence I could indeed rebuild a comparable house.
I suspect there’s also a risk concentration problem with some insurers. I’ve got to imagine they are looking at massive computer models of possible hurricane tracks and seeing scenarios where there’s an outsized exposure. Still, what is curious to me is that they can’t price it in as that’s essentially the business that they are in. Would the required rate increase really be that unpalatable?