Ever since the American Idol finale, I have seen the State Farm commercial with the words "I'll be there" constantly playing (Three times today already). It is a great and touching commercial, but I bet a lot of Floridians are getting a bad taste whenever they see it. "Nothing is more important than being there" is stated in the commercial, well....
In February State Farm announced that after insuring homes in Florida for more than 60 years, they were forced to pull out, as the company would risk insolvency, if it continued to write policies in South Florida. According to the Sun-Sentinel State Farm executives are claiming that they want out of Florida, because they have been denied a rate increase by the state government.
State Farm apparently gave the more than 1.2 million policy holders in Florida 180 days to find new insurance, and ever since I have heard of many people struggling to find another insurance. My husband has dealt with this issue through his job as he manages many apartment buildings, and together with the owner he has had to find new insurance for all the properties. One of the conditions for being signed up at the new company, is that the roof on one of the buildings has to be replaced, which is not a cheap affair. For an owner of many properties this is a big issue, but surely it is not as big of an issue as for those families, who get the same message about their family home.
State Farm further announced that they would continue to write auto policies, something that again was received with very mixed feelings here in Florida.
I remember seeing Governor Crist stating on television that State Farm should not be allowed to sell auto policies in Florida, if they decided to pull out of the housing market. However, according to the Insurance Journal, Governor Crist just gave State Farm the Governor's Hurricane Conference Corporate Award this month for "innovation and achievement in public awareness and mitigation advocacy."
Is it me or does this seem completely ridiculous, after the company has decided to leave it's loyal Floridian customers behind?
If you have not seen the commercial already you can find it here. State Farm - I'll Be There.
What would you do, if your insurance company of many years decided to quit on you? What would you do, if in order to get a new insurance policy you would have to replace your roof, or spend thousands of dollars on other repairs to your home?
I know that one Gather member is struggling with this issue at this very moment. If you would like to help her out, please visit Lydia Shelley's Gather posts and photos.
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Comments: 19
I think it is poor taste to run that commercial in Florida.
Wow, I cannot believe it. I finally figured out how to embed a youtube video into the post.
If you are like me and way behind this kind of stuff, you can check out Fred R's instructions at:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977495748
That would leave a bad taste if they are pulling out of the housing insurance.
insolvency for a fabulously wealthy insurance company means 'we wouldn't hit our dividend goals'..
I would be absolutely furious.........if they pull out of the homeowners' insurance part of it, no way should State Farm be allowed to sell auto policies in Florida either.......I am so very thankful that we never were involved with this company, as I've heard many other negative things about them, as well as this.
State Farm Insurance is a total disgrace to the insurance industry. Perhaps, they will lose additional business as a result of all of this.
It was in bad taste to run it in Flordia. I feel bad for all the Flordians who had state farm and got cut
Crist and the Insurance Commissioner gave State Farm and a dozen other "biggies" a pass to get out of Florida right after the last hurricane season that hit. A few years back, Nationwide wasn't on my side when they decided they would no longer insure frame houses in Pennsylvania. I only got 30 days notice.
My parents have to shop for new Homeowner's Insurance thanks to State Farm dropping them and they live in the panhandle!! I don't think that State Farm should be allowed to sell ANY insurance in the state if they don't want to offer homeowners insurance. I thought that was the law, but I guess I was wrong!
I can understand raising rates, especially since Florida has had so many landfalling hurricanes in the past 5 years but jeez!
And what in the world was Charlie Crist thinking?!?!?!! I actually had some hope for him but I guess he showed where his true loyalties lie. I guess it doesn't matter since he won't be running for a second term as Governor and is a shoo in for Senate. :(
Anyway, I'm rambling. Yes, it does disgust me!!!!
Lisa, I am sorry to hear that your parents have to deal with this. I cannot believe that Crist would give them that award after all of this.
Are they seriously running that commercial in Florida? after they just cancelled all those people's insurance? that is seriously messed up!
I've seen it here in So Cal and we don't have a high opinion of them either.
THANK YOU for the link to the instructions to imbed a video:)
Well - what would we do? We are one of those Floridians who has to replace their roof if we want insurance coverage through the risk pool since State Farm dumped us.
I remember Gov Christ statement quite well and no, they should not be allowed to write insurance in the state of Florida.
Several of our neighbor's no longer have insurance on their homes because they cannot afford the premium the state insurance risk pool is asking.
As with all things insurance - keep the emotion out. This is a corporation in business to make money. End of story. It is up to the state government to provide an alternative to it's citizens.
They all crowed that they would, but aside from helping out some in the mortgage crisis and somewhat of a relief in taxes on over inflated home values there has not been too much help forthcoming.
We are putting on a new roof soon - but in the interim we are without insurance since we had a deadline of getting a new roof by Jan this year.
This is a real problem in Florida - no wonder for the first time ever - there are more people moving out of state than into the state of Florida!
Rose I'm sorry to hear that you too are one of the many, who has to deal with this. I cannot believe how many people I am hearing about, who is required to get a new roof, in order to get insured.
It really does seem like it is one thing after another for Florida homeowners.
I would hate to see a commercial like that given the circumstances. I don't watch much TV at all, other than morning TV with Elliott, so I haven't seen the commercial.
They theatened to leave NJ in Auto Insurance a few years back. Then when it came down to the end, they changed their mind and stayed. I have my insurances with them because they're the cheapest for me. Not to mention I worked for them for so long. But lately I haven't been too thrilled with them at all. So I can understand the frustration.
That is horrible. I can see why it doesn't make fiscal sense to be in the home insurance there though. I wonder if they will pull out of the Santa Barbara area too??
j.r.,
Have you ever switched insurance companies or another business you have been with for years simply because of price?
Has your husband ever had to evict a tenant simply because they didn't pay their rent?
Do you think that the new roof on the apartment building will improve its chance of survivability in a hurricane?
Is it only when you can't get your price that you feel betrayed?
Maybe you think the people that have insurance that live away from the hurricane states should have to pay more so all the people living there will get cheaper insurance.
I don't know enough about State Farmer, but if they were charging more than anyone else for insurance in my area then I would be looking for another company. And I would expect them to not renew my policy if I was willing to pay what they were asking.
I won't defend or chastise State Farm simply because they do feel they can't make sufficient profits on insurance in Florida let alone loss money.
If people can get other insurance companies to cover their homes and business at or below the current State Farmer rate what is the problem? Or is it that they cant get any other company to provide the coverage at that rate?
it sounds like hypocrisy is running rampant on multiple fronts!