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I'm inclined to think this is just a coincidence. The insurance commissioner's office should certainly investigate it, but I would be surprised if they found evidence of wrongdoing.
My own thought is that, if he was paying enough on his auto to save about $1000 by switching, Liberty Mutual considered him a bad auto risk and would be glad to have him cancel.
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No, dwarf74, they got mad because he wouldn't let them rape him for an extra $1000 a year, every year on the car insurance. When my lousy homeowner's company cancelled me back in the day, they made up all sorts of transparent excuses (I had a firepit 20 ft from the corner of my attached garage [sure a 3x3 fire made out of clean dry wood is going to LEAP out of control and burn my house down], and the fact that I didn't have hand-railings to hold onto to go into my house [um, those are only required if you have more than 2 steps, and I have ONLY 2 steps]. Of course part of it was because of the claim my mother made for hail damage a couple of years prior, but I had the policy transferred to my name, which is why the claim showed up on there.
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Shitty AAA of southern California won't write renter's policies for writers...which means I lose the discount for having auto and renter's in the same place. And they refuse to give me the discount I would have for having renter's insurance in the same place. Unfortunately, I'm of the \"devil you know\" school -- or I'd change pronto.
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Amy - that's weird, I just switched over to AAA (renters & auto) and they didn't ask my profession, I don't believe...
re Liberty Mutual - he's better off without them. I was just doing the auto insurance hunt and they quoted me $1500/half when everyone else was quoting $600-800; though to be fair Geico also quoted above $1000 I believe.
it's all a racket, basically.
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I was a Liberty Mutual auto policy holder. A few weeks ago I called them for renter's insurance and they refused to sell it to me. The sales agent blamed the underwriter, who supposedly said that because I had a four thousand dollars claim for a theft in my homeowners insurance - two years ago! in a state 2800 miles away! with another company! - I could not get a renter's insurance from them. That is the only insurance claim I ever had, so I guess that is enough to already tag me as a risky customer for Liberty Mutual. It doesn't matter that I have been a loyal customer for 5 years, religiously allowed them to withdraw money from my checking account every single month and never had a claim with them.
I called another number to cancel the auto policy... they said that I could not cancel without a written request, along with a form that they were supposed to send me. For days I waited for the form, finally had them fax it to me. I am still waiting for a written notification that it was canceled.
So, the lesson from Frank Pallini's case and my experience is that Liberty Mutual really does not care for having homeowners/renters insurance policy holders. Perhaps they are effectively trying to get out of that business...
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Well it appears that none of the people who have commented so far live on the coast. It is nearly impossible to get a new homeowners insurance policy right now in Louisiana or Florida (I own property in both states). Allstate here in Louisiana recently canceled all wind policies for the parishes (counties to the rest of you) along the Gulf Coast unless you have your auto policy with them. Even though LA state law prevents insurance companies from altering your policy, if you've had it for at least 3 years, unless there are material changes to your property. The state insurance commission has vowed to take Allstate to court for their actions. If your current insurance carrier cancels you none of the other \"major\" carriers are writing new policies at this time. The only place you can get coverage is from the state run company (both in LA and FL) and the rates are high. We transfered our auto policies from Geico to Allstate a few months ago. The rates were close, Allstate being slightly higher, but with the discount we got from Allstate for having Auto, Home, and Personal Umbrella with them saved us around $1000 a year. So we avoided (an illegal) cancellation and saved some money. This was even after Allstate paid out over $250k to us in Katrina related claims.
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Sounds like standard insurance practice and of course it probably is illegal in Florida.
Simple root business analysis - Florida is already a high insurance state. Between an older population and hurricanes insurance companies are up against it. By spreading the \"wealth\" over multiple policies they can augment their income. This is probably why it is illegal to tie one line of business to another in Florida.
I would have it investigated, it absolutely stinks of wrongdoing. However, what is to be gained? Sure, they'll be told they can't cancel him now and in a year he'll be cancelled, if not cancelled then just imagine how that next claim process will go, or how high the rates will jump. Either way they're going to drop him or force him to leave.
Someone explain to me why a company would drop a customer because that customer dropped another service that company provides? Seriously, does Liberty Mutual just not want to make money or something? I cannot think of a single benefit to Liberty for dropping someone's property insurance because they got different auto insurance.
It boggles the mind, it does!