OTHER NEWS - Oct. 10, 1996

Insurer to Limit Sales: Nationwide Insurance Co., one of the nation’s leading insurers, plans to curb sales of homeowner policies in coastal areas along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico following years of steep claims for natural disasters, the New York Times reported. The company will curtail the number of policies sold from Maine to Texas and virtually halt sales in Florida, the paper said, citing executives from the company. Richard D. Crabtree, president and chief operating officer of Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide, told the paper that the firm has been limiting sales quietly in the coastal areas for some time. Other insurance companies have scaled back sales in selected regions after huge disasters, such as the 1993 earthquake in Los Angeles or hurricanes battering the Florida and Carolina shores. But none have cut sales in as large an area as Nationwide is planning, the paper said. Nationwide spokesman John Millen said the insurer has sold 2.6 million policies to date, an increase of 800,000 since 1990, but he declined to say how many of its policies are in the area where sales are being cut back.