Wells Fargo & Co. announced it is exiting the personal insurance business and will immediately begin winding down its marketing.
The company said the exit process should be completed during the first quarter of 2018. Until that time, it will continue to make available and service its personal insurance products.
Wells Fargo has offered auto, homeowners, renters and umbrella personal insurance products since 2003.
“Wells Fargo continually reviews our product and service offerings to ensure they meet our customers’ needs and align with the company’s long-term strategic goals,” said Laurie Nordquist, head of Personal Insurance.
The Personal Insurance unit is the last remaining insurance brokerage agency in Wells Fargo’s portfolio, and the company said its financial contribution was not material.
This decision does not impact Wells Fargo’s Wealth and Investment Management’s life insurance practice, according to the firm.
This is the latest in a series of steps Wells Fargo has taken to divest its insurance operations.
In December 2015, Wells Fargo announced the sale of its crop insurance business, Rural Community Insurance Services, and its subsidiary Rural Community Insurance Co., to Zurich American Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Zurich Insurance Group. The sale was completed in 2016.
On June 27, 2017, Wells Fargo announced the sale of its commercial insurance business to USI Insurance Services, a national insurance brokerage and consulting firm. USI agreed to acquire Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA that includes commercial insurance brokerage and consulting, employee benefits and property/casualty national practices, along with Safehold Special Risk, small business insurance, student insurance, individual health and private risk management insurance business lines. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
In conjunction with the sale of the commercial brokerage business, the remaining Personal Insurance business became part of Wells Fargo’s Consumer Lending division. On November 9, 2017, Wells Fargo Insurance announced that it had agreed to sell its crop insurance broker business to Hub International Limited, a global insurance brokerage.
Wells Fargo has been dealing with several insurance-related probes, on top of its major scandal in which employees created fake bank accounts in order to achieve sales goals. The insurance probes have to do with alleged unwanted placement of insurance for car loan customers and sales of so-called gap coverage that covers the difference between what a customer owes on a car loan and the value an insurance company will give to the customer if the car is destroyed in an accident or stolen.
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