The largest auto insurer in the state has now announced that it is branching into this coverage sector.
The Commerce Insurance parent company, Mapfre USA, has now announced that it will be branching out into the life insurance market in Massachusetts, expanding its offerings to consumers in the state.
This is occurring as the company faces increasing competition in the auto insurance market.
Large national companies such as Progressive and GEICO have been putting the pressure in the traditional business of Mapfre USA, so that insurer is now reaching out to other forms of offerings. It has now said that many of its agents in Massachusetts will begin selling life insurance policies there as well as in certain other states later on in 2014. The company is the American subsidiary of Mapfre SA, which is a Spanish business, and is that insurer’s first step into life policies in the country.
The massive international organization will be selling life insurance in the U.S. through its independent agents network.
Those agents are already selling auto and home insurance policies and, according to Mapfre USA president, Jaime Tamayo, these independent agents will also be able to add life policies to the products they have to offer.
Commerce Insurance, a company based in Webster Massachusetts, has held the top spot in the auto insurance sector for many years. However, it has been watching its market share decline as regulators in the state eased its strict management of that sector in 2008. This brought a number of national companies into the state to start selling car insurance, boosting competition and carving away at the company’s long held share. Before 2008, Commerce had held onto 31.5 percent of the personal auto market. Following deregulation, Tamayo said that the share has now fallen to about 27 percent.
Tamayo said that “Certainly, we’ve lost some market share since 2008,” and that “They made a dent. These companies are formidable competitors.” So the strategy has been to broaden offerings and gradually take the first steps into the life insurance market, where they are hopeful that they can slowly become an important competitor.