Frank Boettcher wrote in
:

snip

In the southern states many insurances companies are opting out
coverage of mold and mildew on home owners insurance. That stuff
lives on the wood inside walls in damp areas like bathrooms. It costs
a fortune to remediate.



Well that's better than opting out of all coverage. State Farm just
announced that, because of the untenable legal environment in
Mississippi, they will write no new policies. Started out just no
policies south of Interstate 10, but as of two days ago, statewide.

There's a couple of thoughts on that.

Usually, it's a means of applying political pressure on certain
regulatory and legal bodies to get certain measures passed.

It irritates their policy holders, particularly newer ones. It really
irritates their agents, particularly the newer ones, who make much of
their income by selling policies.

They are a mutual company, owned, pretty much, by their policy holders.
If they cannot balance the risks, financially, across their base, they
have to adjust the base. Sometimes, not adding new policies is the way
they do it. They don't like it, either.

My dad was a State Farm Agent for 35 years. I've never been one, but
I've been their customer for longer than that.

Things will settle out. The Gulf Coast still is a long ways from
settled from the storms, and will be for a while. State Farm will be
back in the new policy game at some time, is my guess. They are in and
out in California, too.

8 years ago, I had to replace my wood shake roof, or find a new
insurance company. I'd only been their customer for 30 years or so at
that point. Stuff happens.

Patriarch