Allstate Announces Withdrawal From Membership in PCI

Allstate Insurance, headquartered in Northbrook, Ill., has given notice to Des Plaines, Ill.-based Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) that the company intends to drop its membership in the insurer trade group effective December 2008.

PCI’s by-laws require members to provide one year’s notification prior to withdrawal from the organization.

Allstate, a founding member in 1945 of the National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII), the national trade association that merged with the Schaumburg, Ill.-based Alliance of American Insurers in January 2004 to create the PCI. Allstate was one of the trade association’s two largest companies.

Allstate shared its dominant role with Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. of Boston. Rumors circulated in recent years that Allstate was not always happy with policy decisions of PCI, which in some cases favored the positions espoused by Liberty Mutual.

But David Sampson, PCI president and CEO, said he found out in a conversation with Allstate’s CEO Tom Wilson, “that Allstate is taking a different direction and will now be insourcing at the state and federal level all of its advocacy functions.

“I was told that Allstate has made a decision to tap the internal capacity of its organization to handle advocacy on every level,” Sampson said. “Allstate pledged that it would continue work with us on a number of issues over the next year.”

When asked how Allstate’s departure would affect the budget and staff at PCI, Sampson said the organization is “solid financially.”

“PCI is in a very healthy position because of the prudent decisions made by our board, particularly over the last several years,” Sampson said. “PCI is not dependent on one member, but relies on all of its other 1,049 members.

Allstate was contacted by Insurance Journal but by press time had not responded to a request for comment.