Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Farmers Insurance Laying Off 11% of Workforce, Citing Industry Challenges

insurancejournal.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 241 posts

Re: Farmers Insurance Laying Off 11% of Workforce, Citing Industry Challenges

#131

Post by sokoloff »

Tangurena2 wrote: post #128
JKCalhoun wrote: post #2

All I see in the article is the discussion of "profits". I would think the PR department could come up with something about "trying to keep costs competitive for our customers" or something like that. Instead they're telling California and Florida customers to take a hike ... along with 11% of their employees. When is the last time we heard a company enact a company-wide, 50% cut in officer's salaries and a freeze on…

In the distant past, insurance companies used actuaries to price policies, so that the companies could make informed, rational decisions like "for people in this risk category, if we want to make X% profit, how much do we need to charge for that coverage?" Instead it became "insurance company M is charging $N for this type of policy, we have to charge something similar or else our customers would switch." Along comes…

> Some coastal states have passed laws prohibiting the consideration of climate change in insurance and governmental decisions.

There's a significant feeling I have of "I hope residents of those states are happy with the outcomes created by their state government's choices."

Re: Farmers Insurance Laying Off 11% of Workforce, Citing Industry Challenges

#132

Post by pc86 »

jghn wrote: post #105
brookst wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re quite right, but I’m not sure it’s a practical solution. While those are populous states, as someone not living in either it is not super attractive to start subsidizing people who choose to live in increasingly disastrous zones. Yes, flood insurance and some other examples, but my objection isn’t based on platonic ideals of equally bad policy for everyone, it’s based on pragmatic ideals of not extending bad p…

> it is not super attractive to start subsidizing people who choose to live in increasingly disastrous zones At the risk of taking this down a political path, I'll take this a step further. States like FL who fall into this bucket are further aggravating as they are also the ones that espouse personal responsibility & small government. I'm not personally against subsidizing these things. But I am against people screa…

What does a small government ideology have to do with a private insurance company making a business decision? You're injecting politics because you don't like the politics of Florida as you see them, which is fine, but it doesn't really fit here.

Re: Farmers Insurance Laying Off 11% of Workforce, Citing Industry Challenges

#133

Post by rhyme-boss »

whalesalad wrote: post #29
JKCalhoun wrote: post #2

All I see in the article is the discussion of "profits". I would think the PR department could come up with something about "trying to keep costs competitive for our customers" or something like that. Instead they're telling California and Florida customers to take a hike ... along with 11% of their employees. When is the last time we heard a company enact a company-wide, 50% cut in officer's salaries and a freeze on…

Why are people surprised when a company operates in its’ own best interest? Why should we expect anything else? Insurance companies are just about moving dollars around and hedging risk. Being perturbed about this is like being mad about your dog barking at the mailman. If someone said I’m going to start free climbing the tallest buildings in the world - but I need insurance - the company will tell you to get lost be…

It would be appropriate to do something about your dog barking at the mailman, like hire a professional and learn how to teach him not to do that.

Re: Farmers Insurance Laying Off 11% of Workforce, Citing Industry Challenges

#134

Post by toddmorey »

mechagodzilla wrote: post #107
tfandango wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Oklahoma. Contrary to popular belief, getting your house destroyed by a tornado is unlikely. But hailstorms are on the rise and roof replacements are becoming more frequent because of them. Insurance has gone up A LOT for everyone, regardless of insurer, and for me despite installing hail resistant shingles last time. I am wondering what happens when people here can no longer afford insurance even though th…

It's more that those states are becoming the most expensive to maintain intact houses in , with the increased insurance a side effect of that. I know someone in TX that has needed a new roof like 6-7 times in 10 years because of hail damage - the insurance company has been bleeding money on their house for a decade, but that's because the house has actually been sustaining significant damage every single year. The on…

At that point, wouldn't a standing seam metal roof be the best investment? The cost is about 3x, but beats an annual roof replacement.

Re: Farmers Insurance Laying Off 11% of Workforce, Citing Industry Challenges

#135

Post by yanslookup »

pwarner wrote: post #15
criley2 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be that person, but this is the future. Because of climate change, more of our country is barreling towards "uninhabitable". It's not Farmers fault that we released too much CO2 and now wildfires and hurricanes are way worse and getting even more worse. If the people of California and Florida want insurance so they can build matchbox houses in high risk disaster zones, then they can start a public insurance…

For sure insurance companies have a chance to act as a forcing function to drive better building codes, fuel management, etc. Those are hard things, especially for existing homes, but it's a simpler calculation for a homeowner to put $100k into a retrofit of it will save them $10k a year in insurance...

I've always wondered if insurance companies do this but maybe I never hear about it. Like lobbying for safer urban design, or R&D into flame resistant building materials etc. Or maybe just purely investing in companies that do those sorts of things.

Re: Farmers Insurance Laying Off 11% of Workforce, Citing Industry Challenges

#136

Post by pc86 »

triceratops wrote: post #79
Spooky23 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What they are really saying is that they can’t effectively model the risk. Say you were an insurer… would you want to take risk for Florida hurricane losses knowing what we know? If we want a functional insurance market in these places, we need a student loan type solution - make the Feds the reinsurer and have the insurance company mostly administer the policy.

If the free market can't insure a risk, at any price, then maybe no one should be taking that risk. Or at least they ought to be left to fend for themselves if they suffer losses due to that.

Maybe you shouldn't have beachfront South Florida real estate if you can't afford the out-of-pocket cost to fix it when it gets wrecked from a hurricane.

Is that a controversial statement? Beachfront property is not a human right. If it's too expensive to insure, then it becomes available only to people who don't financially need insurance - or those who are willing to risk going without it even if they would need it financially.

Re: Farmers Insurance Laying Off 11% of Workforce, Citing Industry Challenges

#137

Post by Manuel_D »

Invictus0 wrote: post #73
hypeit wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An insurance company is not a charity it’s just a profit engine. Odd then that so many forms of insurance are mandated by the government.

Suppose you are an insurer. You model the risk for your insurance product (suppose it's car insurance) and realize you need to charge $100/mo to make money after paying out all the claims. However, you have a competitor that is bad at modeling risk. They are charging $50/mo for their car insurance, and customers are flocking to them. Should you attempt to stay in this market? If you lower your prices, you will eventu…

Stay in the market because the competitor will be put out of business once their customers actually start filing claims. Then customers come back to you.

Re: Farmers Insurance Laying Off 11% of Workforce, Citing Industry Challenges

#139

Post by Retric »

FredPret wrote: post #21
Retric wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Investors for one, I get annoyed at overly generous executive pay because it costs me money.

It'd be great for investors if the top positions were paid mostly / entirely in stock. That way we can entice a good CEO with high pay and our interests will still align.

Paying people with stock is more expensive than paying with cash because of the uncertainty involved. Executives adjust for risk premiums just like anyone else.

Further, suppose you setup long term options and the stock tanks for something completely outside of an executive’s control. They aren’t going to sit around waiting for useless options to vest so you need to increase their compensation package to keep them. Thus they aren’t taking the same risks as investors.

Re: Farmers Insurance Laying Off 11% of Workforce, Citing Industry Challenges

#140

Post by alistairSH »

sokoloff wrote: post #131
Tangurena2 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the distant past, insurance companies used actuaries to price policies, so that the companies could make informed, rational decisions like "for people in this risk category, if we want to make X% profit, how much do we need to charge for that coverage?" Instead it became "insurance company M is charging $N for this type of policy, we have to charge something similar or else our customers would switch." Along comes…

> Some coastal states have passed laws prohibiting the consideration of climate change in insurance and governmental decisions. There's a significant feeling I have of "I hope residents of those states are happy with the outcomes created by their state government's choices."

I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.

Memes and The Onion have become reality and I want off this timeline.

Post reply on HN