A California agents group, the American Agents Alliance, is moving forward with an initiative that would offer a discount to consumers who have persistently maintained their vehicle insurance, no matter their insurer or insurance company.
The current law states that this persistency discount is allowed only when the coverage has been continually kept with the same company. However, the initiative sought by the Agents Alliance is comparable to Proposition 17 in 2010 – which lost by only 2 percent – and would have permitted consumers to carry their persistency discount with them no matter where they received their insurance. This way, as long as they continuously maintained coverage, they could benefit from the discount and yet still find insurers that would offer the lowest rates.
According to executive director Mike D’Arelli at the American Agents Alliance, the current law is designed to benefit the insurance companies. He stated that “We believe that giving the consumers control over their discounts will increase competition between insurance companies, lower costs, and insure more people.”
Many new provisions have also been added, including those that are designed to protect the continuous coverage of individuals have who suffered from the recent recession, who are in the military, or who will be leaving home to live on their own for the first time.
D’Arelli explained that the American Agents Alliance came to the conclusion that there was a need for the new initiative to be more clearly written after having heard from their clients and voters, as well as their opposition.
The American Agents Alliance anticipates that it will receive not only the equivalent support that it had for Proposition 17, but that it will also be joined by the military insurance company, USAA Insurance, as well as others that had previously opposed Prop. 17.
