Allstate Corp. admits at least some of the decrease in policies-in-force in its homeowners' insurance segment is due to agents being “distracted a little bit” by upcoming changes to their commission structure.

Matthew Winter, president of Allstate auto, home and agency, made the comments during the company's second-quarter earnings conference call.

The carrier, he said, has aggressively embarked on a “re-engagement strategy” with agents to teach them the new compensation schedule, announced last year, which aims to incentivize agents to meet performance goals. The new structure will be implemented in 2013.

“We understand how important agency morale is; we believe in [agents],” said Winter. “We want to make changes in a positive way without negatively impacting anything.”

As of June 30, Allstate homeowners' policies-in-force decreased 6.2 percent compared to last year, to about 6.1 million.

Underwriting restrictions in certain states and decisions to stop offering some coverage in selected coastal areas also impacted policy counts, Allstate says in its SEC filing.

CEO Thomas J. Wilson said the rate of decline in policies-in-force won't change. In fact, it may be a “little higher” as the year goes on, he added.

Wilson said that according to a survey of agents taken at a recent conference, a large majority supports the commission changes at Allstate and stands behind the company.

“You have to listen to the broad opinion as opposed to just the noisiest ones,” he said, referring to some widely reported agent-driven criticism of the plan.

Overall, Allstate turned in a profitable second quarter, with net income of $423 million—compared to a net loss of $624 million a year ago during the same period—as significant catastrophe losses of $819 million for the quarter were still far less than the $2.3 billion of catastrophe losses incurred during Q2 2011.

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Allstate: &lsquo;Distracted&rsquo; Agents Affected Q2 Policy Count

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Allstate: ‘Distracted’ Agents Affected Q2 Policy Count