With the faint scent of the promise of future deregulation wafting through the Massachusetts personal auto insurance market, it seems that insurers are starting to prime the pump of policy bells and whistles, according to the Boston Globe:
Starting Jan. 1, Liberty will begin offering its 200,000 customers who have collision coverage better car replacement and rental car coverage. Currently, Liberty offers a Massachusetts customer whose new car is totaled or stolen the depreciated value of the vehicle minus the customer’s deductible.
The newly approved coverage matches what Liberty offers in most other states - full replacement value minus any deductible for a new car that’s stolen or totaled. The difference between the old and new coverage could be hundreds of dollars depending on the vehicle. Liberty defines a new car as one that is less than a year old and has less than 15,000 miles on the odometer. For an older car, Liberty offers depreciated value of the vehicle minus the deductible.[...]
For its part, MetLife has already added, at no extra charge, an identity theft resolution service to the policies of its 200,000 Massachusetts customers. The service directs customers who suspect something amiss with their credit to a company called Identity Theft 911, which will help them deal with the problem.
This should be a very early hint of some of the changes that could be coming to Massachusetts if the Commissioner has the political strength to see deregulation through. Mass Auto might start to resemble auto insurance in the rest of the country, as unthinkable as though that might have seemed a year or two ago.
It’s still probably too early to see any of the absent national writers enter the Massachusetts market. However, if deregulation pans out…maybe in a year or two.
(Disclaimer: I don’t work for one of those absent carriers. That’s just speculation on my part.)