PRODUCT: Homeowners insurance

COMPANY: Safeco Insurance (admitted)

BEST RATING: A

AVAILABILITY: Safeco deals only with appointed independent agents. Contact a company sales representative at a regional office for a possible appointment.

FOCUS: Safeco, one of the nation’s three largest independent agency markets for personal lines insurance business, is rolling out a 100-tier pricing plan. The new pricing model is designed to help agents attract new business by tailoring pricing to reflect region-specific perils, including severe hail and wind storms in the central part of the country and hurricanes in the Southeast, explains Chad Davis, vice president of property insurance. Davis says Safeco generated upwards of $6.5 billion in 2013 in personal lines written premiums, up from $5.8 billion in the previous 12-month span. The results reflect continuation of the company’s “steady growth” in homeowner and other personal lines business, according to Davis, who cites packaging homeowners policies with private passenger auto, umbrella and other personal lines products as a key to Safeco’s success.

With this marketing approach, Davis points out that Safeco provides an underwriting feature most of the company’s competition does not: Producers that arrange Safeco packages containing homeowners alongside other personal lines coverages receive a combined single deductible for a common cause of loss for companion auto, motorcycles, watercraft or recreational vehicle policies.

UNDERWRITING: Safeco can write stand-alone homeowners policies but prefers to package homeowners with other personal lines products, such as auto, umbrella (as much as $5 million in coverage), motorcycles, recreational vehicles, classic cars, watercraft and snowmobiles. In addition to homeowners, Safeco can insure condo unit owners, rental homes, rental condos and secondary homes. Safeco delivers full replacement coverage on both property and contents for homeowners with options of as much as 150% of Coverage A in extended dwelling coverage. The base contract affords $100,000 in worldwide personal liability protection, and producers can arrange up to $500,000. There are no deductibles with Safeco’s broad range of scheduled personal property items, including art, jewelry, silverware and cameras. Safeco provides various endorsements, including equipment breakdown, identity theft recovery and earthquake, and offers various discounts for insureds that package homeowners with auto, recently purchased a new home, install home security systems or bring loss-free claims experience to the table.

MINIMUM PREMIUM: Varies by risk.

TARGET: The underwriting sweet spot ranges from middle market to affluent, serving homes with replacement values of up to $3 million.

COVERAGE TERRITORY: Nationally, except for DC, DE, FL and HI.

CONTACT: Karen Pevenstein, marketing; 175 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116.

Ron Lent is an IA contributor.