With a letter sent out a few weeks ago, Explorer Insurance announced that it will no longer write private automobile policies in Florida because there is too much fraud.
“The company is taking this action in light of poor ongoing business results in Florida, particularly in the area of private passenger automobile no-fault coverage, in which loss fraud has been rampant with no signs of abatement,” Explorer vice president, Steve Frisina, said in the letter to Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR).
The letter said Explorer intends to send termination notices to its agents within a week of the OIR’s acceptance of its plan. Policyholders will begin receiving non-renewal notices also within one week. By January 2012, no Explorer policies will remain in effect.
The OIR has deferred accepting Explorer’s plan until some details are changed.
In the meantime, however, Explorer has severely restricted the number of policies its agents are allowed to write and has told agents it is no longer paying commissions, according to a Tampa agent.