So Allstate Corp. the largest publicly traded U.S. auto insurer, and Warren Buffett’s Geico Corp. are re-entering the Massachusetts car market after the state deregulated pricing for the coverage.
Allstate set Nov. 2 as its target date to return after an absence of about two decades, pending approval from regulators, the Northbrook, Illinois-based insurer said today in a statement. Geico started offering online quotes to Massachusetts drivers today, the company said in a separate statement.
Massachusetts was the last state to give up the authority to set rates in a plan designed to increase competition among insurers and reduce prices for customers. The state revoked the 31-year-old controls last year. Progressive Corp., based in Mayfield Village, Ohio, re-entered the market in 2008.
“As far as I am concerned the floodgates are wide open in Massachusetts right now,” said Kevin Johnson, an independent agent with Johnson & Rohan Insurance Agency in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, about 14 miles (22 kilometers) north of Boston. “It is good news for the consumer.”
Johnson said the state’s insurance regulation kept many companies from entering the market and he is cheered by how much that has turned around since the rules fell about a year ago. This is good news for competition and hopefully lower pricing.