State Farm Insurance To Leave Florida - Good Riddance

The state’s largest private insurer will drop 1.2 million policies over the next two years, likely pushing many into the already bloated state-run insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. State Farm Florida’s policy shedding is widespread, affecting house and condo owners, renters and customers with coverage for personal liability, boats, personal articles, and business property and liability. The insurance giant is hanging on to some lines, including its lucrative, market-leading auto insurance business and life insurance. State Farm Florida president Jim Thompson said that even without any major hurricanes in the past three years, the Florida operation has been losing $20 million a month and was on pace to go insolvent by 2011. Losing a recent legal battle to hike its property insurance rates by an average of 47 percent was the last straw, he said. To Gov. Charlie Crist, the issue was State Farm’s obstinacy in seeking rate hikes. His reaction: good riddance.

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