It’s not just State Farm Florida Insurance Company, but even other companies like Allstate Floridian, Nationwide Insurance, Travelers, Metropolitan Property & Casualty, Hartford Insurance Company and even Hanover Insurance Company; that have been reported to be cancelling policies, or serving notices of non-renewal. Since 2002, and especially after the hurricane season of 2004; most of the large insurance companies were hit with massive insurance claims, causing most of the larger operators to exit the Florida home and property insurance market in a hurry.

Smaller insurance companies find balmy weather

Many people grew angry over the decision of Farm Florida to quit from the state’s home and property insurance market. For most Florida locals and especially for those living in or near coastal sections; finding good home insurance deals has always been a problem. Together with State Farm Florida’s caution on vacating the home insurance market clubbed with the hurricane season having begun, agents are making haste to fill the pending vacuum. Most agents are facing an uphill task finding suitable candidates to whom to offer policies, while individuals are struggling to locate agents willing to access and provide near ideal policies to cover their properties.

The battle on multiple fronts

Home owners face the problem of trying to identify the right insurer for them. Because of the dominance by larger national insurance companies, most home owners have been relatively unaware of the various options available to them. Home owners also face a hurdle finding an insurer that will cover previously damaged or even semi-repaired homes and many face the threat of being left uninsured during the forthcoming hurricane season. Agents meanwhile are stepping over each other trying to locate and insure the cream of the home owners that would be left without coverage due to State Farm Florida’s recent decision to vacate the Florida property insurance market. Also, many of the agents representing smaller companies have policy guidelines from their companies that allow them to only penetrate certain areas of the state. Currently, ChoiceOne, Tower Hill, Travelers, Bankers, GMAC Home, Mercury, Liberty American, Citizens, American Strategic and Universal Property & Casualty are amongst the most prominent insurance companies in the foray at present, attempting to identify and lap up the best policy holders from the State Farm Florida fold.

Matching property insurance policies with requirement

Escalating premium rates coupled with curbs on insuring specific type of homes very often leaves home owners on the constant prospecting for agents who’d adequately provide the right cover. Agents on the other hand find it a difficult task to locate individuals seeking cover, since the market has not been looked into by the smaller companies thoroughly enough. The way forward seems for online match-making services like that dished out by RateElert.com using convergence technologies, to encourage customers to register with their requirements based on which the site automatically identifies the ‘just right’ policy and the closest agent. Companies like homeinsurancebuyers.org provide a premium service to uncover and locate the required policy from an insurer that is willing to service identifiable types of customers – and brings these customers and insurance companies together.