Thousands of people in South Alabama are caught in a real bind – their present homeowner’s insurance carrier has cancelled their policy and they can not find replacement coverage. What is a home owner to do? The starting point is to find an independent agent that you can trust who can search out smaller specialty carriers. These companies are
moving into a marketthat is being created by All-State, State Farm, Farmer’s and their like abandoning the citizens of this state in in favor of maximizing what are already record profits for the insurance industry.
… surplus lines, traditionally more expensive, are becoming price competitive for homeowners, some brokers and industry experts say. Investors have poured billions into new insurance ventures, particularly reinsurers, since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. By 2007, that new money was cutting the cost of insurance from these less-regulated carriers, which are far quicker in responding to market changes.Finding replacement coverage, unfortunately, is only a bandaid solution. What we need is a strong State Insurance Department that will not let the big players like All-State and State Farm write coverage only where they want to or offer only certain products (like car insurance, for example) in an area. Alabama’s Insurance Department has always enjoyed a cozy relationship with the same companies that it is supposed to be regulating because our legislature lets it happen. When someone asks for your vote this fall, ask that person where he or she stands on this issue.
If they are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem. If enough people make this same demand of their legislative candidates, true change will come about
