For nearly two dozen insurers in Florida, State Farm Florida's decision to stop selling homeowners insurance means opportunity.
After the announcement last week, one Boca Raton insurer took out a newspaper ad aimed at State Farm customers. Others solicited them on their websites. One company hopes to recruit State Farm agents.
But the holders of State Farm's 1.2 million policies, covering mostly homes, condos, boats and even businesses, won't be able to rely on their State Farm agents to help them find another insurer -- they are not allowed to write policies for any other company except the state-run Citizens Property Insurance.
More than 800 State Farm agents and their employees could lose about 37 percent of their revenue if all the policies migrate to other private insurers. That has private insurers worried that agents have an unfair incentive to send customers to Citizens.
Despite urging from state officials and agents, State Farm so far isn't changing the rules for its agents. It's the last national insurer with so-called captive agents that can write for only one company.
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