Progressive temporarily restricts some home insurance sales
A company spokesperson tells PropertyCasualty360 that agents in Texas and several other states will be impacted.
Progressive Insurance will temporarily stop certain agents from writing new policies, leaving homeowners in Texas and several other states with fewer coverage options.
In a statement sent to PropertyCasualty360.com, a company spokesperson said:
“We are temporarily restricting new homeowners (HO3) business for certain agents in several states including Texas. We remain committed to the property business in these states and expect that these actions will better position us to build a stronger, more stable, and more competitive Progressive Home business for consumers and independent agents in the long run. These actions will not impact any other lines of business in the affected states; impacted agents can continue to write Personal Auto, Recreational Lines, and Commercial Lines products. Additionally, property-appointed agents can continue to offer Renters, Condo, Flood, and Umbrella.”
Progressive CEO Tricia Griffith said in a letter to company shareholders on Sep. 13 that reducing the impact from weather-related volatility was strategically important while shifting Progressive’s geographic mix would remain a top priority.
“We continue to focus on growing in states where weather risk is relatively lower, while maintaining or reducing our market share in higher volatile states that are more susceptible to catastrophic weather events and have higher exposure to hail,” she added. “In 2021, about 45% of our policies were in less volatile states and we expect to end 2024 with about 60%.”
Progressive’s decision comes in the wake of several other large carriers either raising their premiums or beginning to pullback coverage in places with a higher likelihood for extreme weather events.
Allstate recently hit California homeowners with a 34.1% rate hike, after roughly 17,000 Liberty Mutual customers in the state lost their fire insurance.
Meanwhile, more than 750,000 acres have been burned statewide in California by wildfires already in 2024. Texas has seen roughly 1,202,617 of its acres burned by wildfires this year.
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