Liberty Mutual Latest Insurance Company To Terminate Polices In CA

According to new reports on Thursday, Boston-based insurance company Liberty Mutual will cease to offer business owner’s policies, which include both property and liability risks for businesses, to customers in California this fall, becoming the latest company to limit what policies or types of insurance that they offer in the state.

While insurance companies have been reducing their presence in California in the past few years, some have made it harder for residents to obtain insurance, such as GEICO closing down all 38 of their offices in the state last year and State Farm raising driving insurance rates in March. However, the largest action came in May when State Farm Insurance, the largest property and casualty insurance company in California, announced that they would no longer be accepting new applications for any kind of insurance other than personal vehicle insurance due to large increases in construction costs and inflation. About a week later, it was revealed that Allstate had done the same thing, stopping all new homeowners insurance policies for the last several months. Then, earlier this month, Farmers announced new limits on the number of new homeowner insurance policies it will give each month.

For the companies, the reasons were simple: large increases in construction and reconstruction costs, inflation, and a largely increased risk of danger due to more wildfires. Despite public outcry at having fewer options for insurance and making it harder to buy a home, the companies implemented their plans in full. And on Thursday, Liberty Mutual became the latest company to join in the trend.

According to a statement from Liberty Mutual, the insurance company decided to make the new change due to California’s worsening catastrophe charges and inflation. No new business owner’s policies will be given starting October 1st, with all current policies to go under non-renewal beginning in December, meaning that the company will slowly get out of the business owner’s policy side of the business throughout 2024 as policies end. In addition, Liberty further noted that they will continue to offer other forms of commercial insurance in California and remain otherwise committed to the state.

Liberty latest insurance company to limit policies in CA