State Farm gets conditional approval to drop Florida property insurance policies

State Farm has the green light to pull out of Florida's property insurance market — as long as it meets a laundry list of demands from regulators. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said the "conditional'' approval granted Friday is meant to ensure that the exodus of the state's biggest property insurer isn't "hazardous'' to its policyholders and the public at large. Among the biggest conditions, State Farm has to free up its agents to steer discarded policyholders to other private insurers so the state-run Citizens Property Insurance doesn't become a dumping ground. As "captive'' agents, State Farm's network of 800 agents statewide are compelled to write policies for State Farm first and, if they cannot place someone, turn to Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run insurer of last resort. All told, State Farm is dropping about 1.2 million policies, 700,000 of them covering homeowners.

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