Home insurance in California?

[dlminehart]

I'm thinking about changing my home insurance provider, and wondering if anyone familiar with the industry in California could point me toward (or away from) some companies to ask for quotes.

I have AAA car insurance, and am asking them for a "bundle" price to include home and umbrella policies. But I figured I should shop around a bit among reputable providers.

[jackellis]

We have State Farm and use them for all our insurance except my airplane.

[Tom Slick]

I have allstate for everything but my motorcycle. I've never had to make a claim on the homeowner's insurance though.

[LCHIEN]

I happened to talk to my insurance agent yesterday.
She said that Allstate is not writing any new policies for the gulf coast region in order to limit their exposure to losses from hurricanes and storms.
I told her I'd heard that insurance companies were being slow to pay and were being notorious for avoiding paying hurricane (katrina) claims where the house was destroyed by wind and rain but the insurers were claiming all the damage was due to rising water (not covered).
I said it was very hard to evaluate service you'd never need except in catastrophic conditions and I said I hoped they'd be there for me when and if I needed it.
When she said that they were leaving markets where the risk was too high I asked how much they sold in policies and how much they paid out and she said she didn't know.

I looked it up on the Allstate website annual report to stockholders, in 2006 they received 27 billion in insurance premiums and spent 16 billion in claims processing and claims. 2005, the storm year, was worse, they took in 27 billion in premiums and spent 21 billion in claims processing and claims.
So in a good year they made 11+ billion and in a really bad year they only made 6 billion. Seems like a good business to me, but they're cherry picking.

Those figures are for exactly as stated. Does not include cost of sales, and income or loss from other businesses, financial ventures and services, just the insurance end. Anyway, just facts.

So I've never had to deal with them for a claim so I can't vouch for how good they are or aren't. They are very fast to bill me and cash checks, though.