BestWeek Looks at State Farm Move in Florida

By fourth quarter 2011, if regulatory approvals are given, State Farm’s residential property operations in Florida will be a memory—leaving behind about 1.2 million policies state and industry officials hope the private market can absorb as well as dozens of unanswered questions about the future of a market already in strife.

But other companies said they believe they could stand to gain from the pullout, according to this week’s BestWeek U.S./Canada. People’s Trust Insurance Co., one of about 40 new companies to have formed in Florida since 2007, said it is ready to take State Farm policies.

In BestWeek Europe, lured by improved prospects in the international energy and construction markets, New York-based Navigators Group Inc. has created a London based unit to coordinate the underwriting of this big ticket business.

And also in BestWeek U.S./Canada, Washington has finally been prodded into conjuring some regulatory oversight of the derivatives markets, including the credit default swap contracts that have played so prominent a role in the near collapse of American International Group Inc. Media accounts indicate that members of Congress and federal regulators are stoked up to cage the derivatives beast. But when it comes to credit default swaps, there still seems to be a question about what kind of critter they’re dealing with.

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