It was a combination of factors. We have, by far, the largest market share of any carrier in the state in these eight counties - 26%. We don't want to do this, but we had to in order to manage our exposure. |
The feeling is, we're due for a major catastrophic event to occur here. We're doing this in order to preserve the promises we made to the large majority of our customers. |
The hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005 were devastating. They brought terrible destruction to coastal areas of the United States. If you took what those storms brought, and combine that with similar expected in coming years, it puts us in a position where we must explore options to better manage our exposure. |
We have had the largest share of the market for decades. It's time for some of the other insurers to share that risk. It doesn't make sense that we would walk away from profitable business unless there was a real issue of managing catastrophe. |