Mercury Insurance Taking Tokio Marine's California Personal Lines ...
Mercury Insurance on Thursday announced a plan that the Los Angeles-based carrier says will help maintain insurance availability and provide coverage for thousands of California consumers as two insurers exit the state’s personal lines market.
Under the plan, 12,556 home policies of Tokio Marine America (TMA) and its subsidiary, Trans Pacific Insurance Co. (TPIC), will be transitioned to Mercury with assistance from a group of California independent insurance agents.
The policies represent premiums of $11.3 million.
TMA offers personal lines insurance only in California and writes only a small percentage of the state’s market. The company announced in April that it would be exiting personal lines in the state in July because it determined it cannot “sustainably support” such a small segment of personal lines business given the cost of updating information technology systems.
The California Department of Insurance reviewed the proposal to transition customers to Mercury after Tokio Marine announced its intent to withdraw.
TMA’s and TPIC’s exit has no impact on any other Tokio Marine Group company, and the company will continue writing commercial coverage for businesses in California and across the country, according to an announcement issued on Thursday.
The transition plan involved partnering with a team of existing Mercury independent agents who also represented TMA, as well as more than a dozen TMA agents who have been offered Mercury agent appointments to help facilitate the transition, according to the announcement.
Other insurers are also ending or reducing coverage as the state grapples with wildfires and other natural disasters. Last May, State Farm announced it had stopped accepting new policy applications for property/casualty insurance in California due to increased risks from wildfires and inflation. Last month, State Farm said it would non-renew 30,000 California homeowners, rental dwelling, and other property insurance policies.
The Hartford announced in January it would discontinue writing new homeowners policies in California. Liberty Mutual in July 2023 stopped offering its business owner’s policy product in the wildfire-prone state and that same month Farmers began limiting new homeowners insurance policies in California.
Mercury Insurance offers personal auto, homeowners, and renters insurance directly to consumers and through independent agents in Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia, as well as auto insurance in Florida.
TMA sells commercial property/casualty insurance products in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.
Topics California Personal Lines
