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Allstate said it sees opportunity where others may not — in homeowners insurance. And the insurer plans to use all three distribution channels to do it.

Due to rising trends in the frequency and severity of weather-related losses and in inflation, some insurers have elected to either pull away from some geographies or leave the homeowners business entirely. Allstate said during a recent earnings call that it is ready to step in where margins are good.

“We view homeowners as a growth opportunity,” said Mario Rizzo, president of Allstate’s property-liability business. “There’s just a few competitors out there that are wanting to write new business, and we want to take advantage of that opportunity. We feel good about where our pricing is.”

Rizzo said Allstate homeowners insurance net written premiums increased almost 11% and policies-in-force grew 2.5% during the third quarter, and the business turned in a 98.2 combined ratio with $60 million of underwriting income compared to a loss of $131 million for the third quarter last year.

Allstate CEO Tom Wilson said that over the last 10 or so years the Northbrook, Illinois-based insurer has repositioned every aspect of its homeowners book — underwriting, policy terms, pricing and claims management. He said Allstate’s agents “are really good at bundling” but there is room to grow.

“We do think there is more growth potential there,” Wilson said during the call. “Some of that is many people have decided not to grow in homeowners. And that gives us more opportunity, not just through Allstate agents, but in particular through independent agents. And I think we should be able to crack the code on direct.”

On its distribution channels, Wilson said Allstate for the first time has all three functioning.

“We’ve got three horses here, all ready to run,” he said.

Wilson said no one has been able to really sell homeowners insurance via the direct channel but there is “great potential there” and he said he thinks Allstate “can be an industry leader.”

“People buy houses off the web,” Wilson said. “If you buy a house off the web, you should be buy your homeowners insurance off the web. We’ll have to sort that one out. We’re feeling good about it.”

Rizzo said Allstate can maintain its underlying combined ratio in the homeowners business — about 62 in Q3 — and grow across all distribution channels and write new business at an attractive margin.

Independent agents, Rizzo said, have been getting good traction leading with homeowners and bundling auto insurance, especially as the insurer’s profit improvement plan in auto has improved margins. Auto insurance booked a Q3 combined ratio of 94.8, an improvement of 7.3 points.

Still, Allstate won’t be looking for homeowners market share in Florida and California, and will continue managing probable maximum loss (PML) and coastal exposure.

“But once you get away from that — really the rest of the country, particularly the middle part of the country — there’s real opportunity for us to continue to grow homeowners,” Rizzo said. “I think that is where our our capabilities from a product, pricing, and risk management perspective really enable us to take advantage of the disruption in the market and grow pretty broadly, geographically.”

Topics Homeowners