Nationwide Insurance to drop 60,000 Florida home insurance policies
Oct 7, 2009
Various Florida media outlets have reported that Nationwide Insurance Company of Florida plans to drop 60,000 Florida homeowners policies beginning in July 2010. The stories are reprinted below.
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Sun-Sentinel’s “House Keys” Blog: Nationwide Insurance will shed 60,000 home insurance policies
Posted by Julie Patel on October 7, 2009 03:24 PM
Nationwide Insurance Co. of Florida announced today that it plans to drop 60,000 home insurance policies — nearly half of the roughly 129,000 policies it has.
The policies would be dropped starting in July when they are up for renewal. Nationwide, which has been scaling back its risk in Florida for several years now, said Tower Hill insurance will offer coverage to many of the policyholders.
Nationwide spokeswoman Nancy Smeltzer said the company made the decision to “maintain viability, manage risk and continue to serve the policyholders we have in Florida.”
“This is a difficult business decision, but Nationwide must make tough choices now to make sure they can be here for our customers in the future,” the company said in a statement.
After Nationwide shrinks, it will still have more than 275,000 total policies in Florida with coverage for cars, businesses and homes.
St. Petersburg Times: Nationwide Insurance to drop 60,000 homeowners policies in Florida
By Jeff Harrington, Times Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Nationwide Insurance Co. is dropping about 60,000 homeowners’ policies across Florida, the latest insurer to dramatically scale back its presence in the hurricane-prone state.
Customers who are non-renewed will be directed to seek coverage with the Tower Hill Group, the company said.
Nationwide spokeswoman Nancy Smeltzer said nearly all customers with home-only policies will be affected. About 45,000 personal lines homeowners policies in which the customer has other types of coverage with Nationwide will not be affected.
The cuts will leave the Ohio insurer with 275,00 policies in Florida, including those 45,000 personal lines policies. The remainder of policies it is keeping cover auto, specialty auto, commercial and power sports lines such as boat coverage.
“These actions are part of our efforts to manage risk, maintain viability and remain in a strong position to service policyholders in the state of Florida,” the company said in a statement. “This is a difficult business decision, but Nationwide must make tough choices now to make sure they can be here for our customers in the future.”
No customers will be affected during the 2009 hurricane season, the company said.
In a filing Wednesday with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, Nationwide indicated that the first non-renewals will be effective in July 2010. The process is expected to take two years.
The pullback comes as State Farm, the largest private insurer in the state, is negotiating with state regulators over terms of a complete withdrawal from the state’s property insurance market. Nearly 1 million policies are affected by State Farm’s exodus, including about 700,000 covering single-family homes in Florida.
Jeff Harrington can be reached at jharrington@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8242.
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