With New NJ Training Center, Farmers Insurance Group Continues Push East

Farmers Insurance Group has opened a new agent training facility in Cherry Hill, N.J., in the Los Angeles-based company's latest push into the state.

Farmers spokesman Jerry Davies said the company was approved to write in New Jersey last fall and has been doing so since December. Along with the facility in Cherry Hill, the insurer has already opened a similar one in Parsippany, where exclusive Farmers agents will be trained. Davies said they expect to add about 150 jobs to the state through 2012 and then 150 to 300 jobs annually for the subsequent three years.

The company has been moving forward in recent years with an East Coast expansion plan (Best's News Service, Aug. 24, 2011). Last year, Farmers began selling coverage in Pennsylvania, marking its 30th state. Maryland, Georgia and New York are among the markets Farmers is viewing in the short term. The expansion strategy will play out over the first half of the decade.

Farmers President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Dailey said recently his company is planning to move ahead full steam with marketing itself east of the Mississippi River (Best's News Service, Jan. 30, 2011). In 2009, the company bought 21st Century Insurance Cos., which already wrote automobile insurance in New Jersey, from American International Group for $2 billion (Best's News Service, April 17, 2009).

Farmers is the ninth-largest property/casualty writer in the United States for 2010, according to BestLink. Farmers currently has a Best's Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent).

The top five writers of all private passenger auto in New Jersey in 2010 were: Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group, which had a market share of 14.85%; Allstate Insurance Group, with 14.24%; NJM Insurance Group, with 13.11%; Palisades Group, with 10.46%; and State Farm Group, with 9.72%, according to BestLink.

(By Michael Buck, senior associate editor, BestWeek: [email protected])