As Allstate and Florida regulators battle over a possible license suspension of that company, another major insurer has said it will cease writing new business in the Sunshine State.

State Farm, the largest privately owned insurer in the state, has told the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation that it will not write any new policies in the state.

Edward Domansky, a spokesman for the OIR, said the move was "a business decision that State Farm made, and one they are allowed to make without the commissioner's approval."

The company did give the OIR notice as a "courtesy," he said, adding that Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty was "disappointed and thinks it's bad for the state."

However, Samuel Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Insurance Council, noted that State Farm's decision to stop writing new business should not be confused with a withdrawal from the market.

"There's a big difference between saying we're not going to get any bigger and saying we're pulling out," he said.

Although noting that he was not speaking for the company, Mr. Miller said that State Farm's decision simply means the company is not expanding its presence.

"State Farm is still huge in Florida," he said, adding that it is the "largest private insurer in the state."

Mr. Miller said with Allstate facing a possible suspension of its licenses if an action by Mr. McCarty is successful in administrative court, and State Farm's recent action, there are signs of potential trouble in the state's insurance market. "Things are not good in Florida when big companies feel that they cannot grow," he said.

However, consumers should not be left out in the cold, and he noted that there are "lots of smaller companies" that will be able to take the new business.

Mr. Domansky echoed that sentiment, noting that the decision by State Farm will not cause any homeowners to lose coverage, and that 20 new companies have entered the Florida market in recent years, bringing roughly $3.4 billion in capital.

In the Allstate case, the company has filed a brief in court to maintain a stay of the OIR's order suspending the company. The brief, dated February 22, argued that the OIR and Mr. McCarty went beyond their authority in seeking to obtain documents from the company

"Although the publicized purpose of the investigation was to determine whether the Allstate Companies had properly addressed legislation enacted in January 2007, the scope of the requested documents extended far beyond that stated purpose," Allstate said in its brief.

Some of the requests, the company said, involved documents going back as far as 1995, while others dealt with the company's operations in other states.

The stay was granted to allow Allstate to continue operating while the OIR pursues a final suspension order through the administrative legal system. Mr. McCarty filed a formal administrative complaint against the company, a requirement of the process, last week. Allstate has 21 days to respond to the complaint, and Mr. Domansky said he had not heard of a response being filed as of yet.

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State Farm Won't Write New Florida Business

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