2002: Auto Insurance Choice and Competition Dwindles, Consumers Suffer, According to the Coalition for Auto Insurance Competition.Business Editors NEWARK Newark, cities, United States Newark. 1 City (1990 pop. 37,861), Alameda co., W Calif., on the east side of San Francisco Bay; inc. 1955. , N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 30, 2002 For New Jerseyans Noun 1. New Jerseyan - a native of resident of New Jersey Garden Stater, New Jerseyite American - a native or inhabitant of the United States seeking auto insurance coverage, 2002 will likely be known as the worst year in state history for auto insurance choice and competition. "Drivers are facing the ugly truth about auto insurance in New Jersey," said John Friedman, chairman of the Coalition for Auto Insurance Competition. "Excessive regulation and political interference is forcing auto insurers to flee flee v. fled , flee·ing, flees v.intr. 1. To run away, as from trouble or danger: fled from the house into the night. 2. New Jersey, leaving drivers with little choice and few options." More than twenty-five auto insurers have left New Jersey during the last ten years. In 2002, seven auto insurers either left or announced plans to stop doing business in New Jersey: - January: Harleysville Insurance Company agrees to pay Palisades Safety and Insurance Association and Palisades Insurance Company $4.7 million to take the 16,000 vehicles Harleysville insures. - June: State officials approve State Farm Indemnity's request to withdraw from New Jersey. - September: State Farm Indemnity starts non-renewing 96,000 New Jersey auto policies as part of its withdrawal. - September: Twin City Fire Insurance Company, part of Hartford Financial Services, agrees to pay Palisades Safety & Insurance Association and Palisades Insurance Company $9.2 million to take the 24,000 vehicles Twin City insures in New Jersey. - September: Great American Insurance Company agrees to pay Palisades Safety & Insurance Association and Palisades Insurance Company $7.0 million to take the 24,000 vehicles Great American insurers in New Jersey. - December: The Robert Plan shuts its New Jersey business, non-renewing its last 20,000 vehicles through a Department of Banking and Insurance-ordered "solvent run-off" precipitated by the company's hazardous financial condition. - December: Central Mutual Insurance Company announces it is leaving New Jersey. - December: Merchants Insurance Group announces it is leaving New Jersey. Each month, the owners of more than 4,000 vehicles learn that their auto insurance coverage is not being renewed, forcing these policyholders to search for replacement coverage in a market bereft of sufficient choice and competition. The Coalition points to the state's excessive regulation of auto insurance as the culprit behind the lack of sufficient auto insurance choice and competition. "Without swift action by state lawmakers, consumers will likely face fewer choices in 2003 as excessive regulations and political influence continues to take its toll," said Friedman. "Drivers need a regulatory system that promotes competition, encourages companies to sell auto insurance in New Jersey, and creates a stable market that offers more choices for consumers." "Until reforms are made that promote greater consumer choice and industry competition, insurers will continue to lack the incentive to grow and invest capital in New Jersey, leaving drivers in a lurch Lurch Addams’s zombielike, extremely tall butler. [TV: “The Addams Family” in Terrace, I, 29] See : Butler ," said Friedman. The latest figures show New Jersey has 47 percent fewer companies selling auto insurance than Illinois Illinois, river, United States Illinois, river, 273 mi (439 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers, NE Ill., and flowing SW to the Mississippi at Grafton, Ill. It is an important commercial and recreational waterway. and more than a third fewer than neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (pĕnsəlvā`nyə), one of the Middle Atlantic states of the United States. It is bordered by New Jersey, across the Delaware River (E), Delaware (SE), Maryland (S), West Virginia (SW), Ohio (W), and Lake Erie and New York . More than twenty auto insurance companies have left New Jersey in the past ten years, and two have left in the last year. The Coalition has been working to educate New Jersey drivers and policy makers to stem the state's unprecedented auto insurance crisis precipitated by the deterioration de·te·ri·o·ra·tion n. The process or condition of becoming worse. of the financial health of New Jersey's auto insurance industry. The group is calling for passage and enactment of the New Jersey Auto Insurance Competition and Choice Act (A-2625 and S-1999), which outlines reforms that will attract more auto insurers to New Jersey by permitting companies to use industry-accepted standard underwriting Underwriting 1. The process by which investment bankers raise investment capital from investors on behalf of corporations and governments that are issuing securities (both equity and debt). 2. The process of issuing insurance policies. methods already used in nearly every state. "While 2002 has been a bad year for auto insurance consumers, 2003 does offer hope for meaningful reform," said Friedman. "Governor McGreevey has acknowledged the problem and promised to present his own proposal in January to stimulate auto insurance choice and competition," The Coalition welcomes the participation of consumers, businesses, and associations who seek to work together to bring about meaningful and responsible auto insurance reform. Members include the National Association of Independent Insurers, Insurance Council of New Jersey, American Insurance Association, New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, Independent Insurance Agents of New Jersey, Citizens for a Sound Economy Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) is a conservative political group operating in the United States, whose self-described mission is "to fight for less government, lower taxes, and less regulation. , National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, New Jersey Association of REALTORS, Professional Insurance Agents of New Jersey, New Jersey Food Council, New Jersey Retail Merchants Association, NJ SEED (Society for Environmental, Economic Development), Somerset County Somerset County is the name of four counties in the United States and one in England. See:
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