Farmers Insurance looks to grow in New York

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Mar 04, 2005 by Tampone, Kevin

NORTH SYRACUSE - Farmers Insurance Group - a Los Angelesbased provider of auto, homeowners, life, and business insurance with more than 17 million policies written in 41 states - wants to expand in New York State.

In anticipation of statewide growth, the company recently moved its New York State office from 445 Electronics Parkway in Liverpool (Town of Salina) about 500 yards down the road to a bigger space at 100 Elwood Davis Road in North Syracuse (also town of Salina). The company, which says it is the thirdlargest provider of personal insurance in the country, has been writing policies in New York since 1999, and opened its Liverpool office three years ago. Before that, Farmers used home-based employees to handle New York claims or passed them along to offices in other states like Connecticut.

The North Syracuse office is a claimsservice center for all of New York State.

Farmers Insurance has added three clerical workers and three claims adjusters in the area in the past year to bring the total staff in the local office to 14. The company will add another adjuster this year, says Thomas Hyman, claims-service manager for Farmers' northeast region.

The office move gives the New York staff more. room, and allows room for future staff additions, Hyman says. The new space has 2,700 square feet compared with 2,000 square feet in the old office.

"We were getting pretty full in there," Hyman says

Farmers. Insurance employees have been in their new home since Feb. 3. The company has, a five-year lease on the space, which is located in a professional building owned by The Widewaters Group.

About 280 insurance agents across New York sell Farmers Insurance policies, and to date have written more than 85,000 policies. Farmers Insurance, which nationally takes in more than $14.2 billion in premiums annually, hopes to recruit another 600 agents in New York and write another 22,000 policies in the next year, says Deborah Fester, vice president of marketing in the company's northeast region.

"(New York) has a lot of potential for us," Fester says. "We think we're in a good position to grow."

New York is an attractive market for Farmers because of its large population. The state also is a lower risk than some of the company's largest markets, like its home state of California.

"You don't have the catastrophic exposure in New York that some other states have," Fester says. "In California, you can have problems like brush fires and earthquakes."

In the Northeast, Farmers also has operations in Penrisylvania, Maryland, and the New England states.

As the company's New York client base grows, it will probably open additional offices. Within five years, the company could have an office in the New York City area and a second upstate location, Fester says.

Farmers will also eventually hire specialists for the largest, most serious claims in the state, she adds. Those claims would involve severe injuries such as loss of limbs.