Farmers Insurance is closing its doors to thousands of customers for one troubling reason: ‘[This] decision was necessary’
Farmers Insurance is the latest insurer to completely pull out of Florida, citing concerns about natural disasters made worse by Earth’s rising temperature, CBS News reports.
Farmers announced the change on July 11, following a notice to the state’s regulatory agency. The insurer is required to give the state three months’ notice before it begins to discontinue policies.
According to its announcement, the company will no longer offer company-branded homeowners, auto, or umbrella policies in Florida, CBS News reports. This decision affects around 100,000 existing policies and any future customers. Policies sold under subsidiaries, which make up about 70% of Farmers’ business in the state, will not be affected at this time.
Unfortunately for Florida residents, Farmers is the fourth insurance company to leave the state in the past year. Pensacola News Journal lists the other departing companies as Bankers Insurance, Centauri Insurance, and Lexington Insurance.
The state experiences so many destructive hurricanes and storms that even charging homeowners three times the national average for insurance — according to CBS News — has become expensive and risky.
“This business decision was necessary to effectively manage risk exposure,” Farmers spokesman Trevor Chapman told CBS News in a statement.
Air pollution created by humanity raises the temperature worldwide, leading to more unstable, extreme weather. In addition to heat waves, different locations throughout the globe have experienced severe storms, droughts, wildfires, and floods.
For insurance companies that gamble that they’ll receive more money in insurance fees than they pay out in claims, all this heavy weather is bad for business. Insurers are also leaving California for similar reasons.
Insurance policies will be harder to find and more expensive for residents of these states. CBS News says a 40% jump in Florida’s insurance prices this year is expected. Some homeowners may even have to go without insurance and risk losing their homes if there is a disaster.
Prior to Farmers’ announcement, Florida’s chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis (@JimmyPatronis), tweeted that he had heard rumors about the possibility the company might withdraw.
“If that’s true my office is going to explore every avenue possible for holding them accountable,” he said.
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