Ask Tim; Industry News

​On Monday, August 7, an insurance carrier that has written a significant amount of personal auto and homeowners coverage in New York informed its agents that it intends to withdraw its primary underwriting company from the preferred home and auto insurance market in all states. Since that announcement, we have received questions from members about the rules the carrier must follow in New York as it implements its exit.The bottom line is that any carrier providing personal property and casualty insurance must have a withdrawal plan approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). They cannot implement that plan without approval. Here…

​ Penalty by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free ​ The New York State Department of Financial Services issued its monthly insurance disciplinary action report on February 13, and it was an unusually long one – 18 pages. Big I New York members regularly contact our office with questions about whether a course of action they're considering (or that a competitor has taken) will violate the state's insurance law and regulations. Because of that, I always find it interesting to see what areas of the law DFS has focused on when taking action. This is a summary of the disciplinary actions taken recently against resident and…

​Major news outlets publicly reported late last month that State Farm and Progressive have stopped issuing new auto insurance policies or coverage on certain older Kia and Hyundai models. A television station in Rochester contacted Big I New York about it.  The reason given for the carriers' action was high theft rates for these vehicles – Progressive told USA Today, “In some areas, the vehicles are almost 20 times more likely to be stolen than other vehicles.”Two Big I New York members in different parts of the state have told us this week that another major carrier has gone further. According to a producer bulletin, the…