Farmers Insurance pulls out of Florida, affecting 100,000 policyholders

Farmers Insurance will stop offering its policies in Florida, including home, auto and umbrella policies, in a change that will force thousands of people to change their insurance provider.

The company said in a statement that its decision to get out of Florida was a business decision necessary to manage its risk exposure in the hurricane-prone state. Farmers serves 100,000 customers in Florida but said there will be no impact to customers who use Farmers' owned subsidiaries like Foremost Signature and Bristol West.

"Such policies will continue to be available to serve the insurance needs of Floridians," Farmers Insurance spokesperson Trevor Chapman said in a statement. "Affected customers will receive notifications detailing when their coverage will end and will be advised of options for replacement coverage."

National insurers don't have a major presence in Florida, including Farmers, which has barely a 2% share of the state's insurance market. Florida requires affected policyholders to receive a 120-day notice that their policies aren't being renewed.

"Over the past 18 months in Florida, 15 home insurers have placed moratoriums on writing new business, four carriers have announced plans to voluntarily withdraw from the market and seven companies have been declared insolvent," Mark Friedlander, a spokesperson for Insurance Information Institute, told CNN. "Currently, there are 18 Florida residential insurers on the state regulator's watch list due to concerns over their financial health."

In addition to extreme weather, Florida insurers point to a legal system it says promoted litigation abuse and excess claims.

"This is a man-made crisis," Friedlander previously told CNN.