Florida Insurance Commissioner Says ‘Substantiated’ State Farm Rate Increase Could Be Approved; Hearing Rescheduled to January 25
Nov 18, 2009
In his report to the Florida Cabinet yesterday, November 17, 2009, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said he is optimistic for a “trimmed down” State Farm to maintain some of its Florida property insurance business. He added that December 17 hearing on the proposed withdrawal plan, which has been rescheduled twice, has been postponed once again with the hope that State Farm and the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (“OIR”) can reach a favorable resolution on the insurer’s proposed Florida withdrawal.
The Florida Division of Administrative Hearings recently granted a joint motion by the OIR and State Farm Florida to reschedule the December 17 hearing to January 25-29, 2010.
The following blog post on the development was published yesterday by the Capitol News Service:
by Whitney Ray
November 17th, 2009
The state may have to allow State Farm to increase rates in order to keep the insurer in Florida.
Negotiations between the Office of Insurance Regulation and State Farm continue. A hearing to set guidelines for a State Farm pullout was postponed today, giving both sides an extra month to work on a deal. Today, Florida’s Insurance Commissioner, Kevin McCarty, addressed rumors that State Farm had been offered a 15 percent rate increase to stay in Florida.
“We’ll approve a rate increase, for State Farm or any other company that produces confident, substantial evidence to support their rate filing. Unfortunately, State Farm was unable to do that in the past. If they are able to substantiate a rate increase in Florida, we will grant it. Obviously, we want our companies to not only maintain a presence in Florida, but have the financial wherewithal to pay their claims, said McCarty.
State Farm announced it was dropping its homeowners’ policies after insurance regulators denied the company a 47 percent rate increase. At the time State Farm said it needed the double digit hike to prepare for a major hurricane hitting Florida.
Source: http://www.flanews.com/?p=7863
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