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Senate panel requests Allstate documents

The state senators want to see if Allstate broke the law.

By TOM ZUCCO, Times Staff Writer
Published February 15, 2008

The co-chairmen of a Florida Senate panel investigating the property insurance industry have asked Allstate Insurance Corp. to produce hundreds of documents relating to how the company does business.

Allstate, which is Florida's fourth-largest homeowner insurer and a frequent target of state lawmakers, regulators and Gov. Charlie Crist, has two weeks to comply.

In a letter Thursday to Allstate Floridian CEO Joe Richardson, Sens. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and Steven Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, request many of the same documents the state is seeking through an investigation led by insurance commissioner Kevin McCarty.

But Atwater said the duplicate request is necessary because his panel has a different mission. The Senate's focus is on adhering to Florida law, not rate regulation.

Lawmakers want to see internal communications between Allstate and its affiliates, as well as documents relating to hurricane modeling, rate setting, reinsurance contracts and rating agencies. The committee also wants to see "communications concerning the activities of the Senate Select Committee or the pending case brought by the Office of Insurance Regulation OIR."

Allstate officials had told senators that much of the information they wanted was a trade secret.

"I can't imagine how a PowerPoint presentation or internal communications are trade secrets," Atwater said.

The committee spent two days earlier this month grilling five insurance companies, including Allstate, about their business practices. It will meet again Tuesday in Tallahassee.

Only Allstate was asked to provide more documents, Atwater said, because the company asked for the highest average rate increase (43 percent) of any large insurer.

McCarty has sent seven subpoenas to Allstate seeking much of the same information. But after determining that Allstate had turned over only a fraction of the documents, McCarty tried to block the Northbrook, Ill., insurer from writing any new business in the state. An appeals court overturned McCarty's order, but the state is contesting that ruling.

Allstate spokesman Adam Shores said the company will work with the Senate.

"And it's important to note," Shores added, "the state already possesses detailed information of our rate filings. We have provided over 100,000 pages of documents to OIR, including some that may be responsive to this most recent request."

Tom Zucco can be reached at zucco@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8247.

[Last modified February 14, 2008, 22:51:56]