Allstate

“I'm looking at the Travelers numbers and the Allstate numbers and Hartford's and I have some guesses around GEICO's numbers looking at what they've done. And it doesn't seem like they're growing very quickly”

An analyst notes Allstate's policy count does not appear to be growing quickly, part of a broader read on decelerating growth across large auto insurers.

“But we've been able to leverage the capabilities at Allstate Protection Plans to add new partners, like Tom mentioned, with Home Depot and Walmart.”

Allstate cites Walmart as a new protection-plans (extended-warranty) distribution partner, a read-through that Walmart offers Allstate-backed protection plans.

“But we've been able to leverage the capabilities at Allstate Protection Plans to add new partners, like Tom mentioned, with Home Depot and Walmart.”

Allstate cites Home Depot as a new protection-plans (extended-warranty) distribution partner, a read-through that Home Depot offers Allstate-backed protection plans.

“And State Farm picked up, but not quite that amount of market share gain.”

Allstate says rival State Farm picked up some auto market share, though less than Progressive's gains.

“GEICO's lost a couple of points in market share.”

Allstate says GEICO (a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary) has lost a couple of points of auto insurance market share, a negative read-through on GEICO.

“Progressive, as you know, well has been growing rapidly.”

Allstate names Progressive as one of its three most aggressive auto competitors and notes it has been growing rapidly, a positive read-through on Progressive's share momentum.

“GEICO lost a couple of points of share because they had written a bunch of business prior to that, which was not profitable.”

Allstate says Berkshire's GEICO shed share after shedding unprofitable business, a mixed-to-negative read-through for GEICO's recent auto growth.

“I think State Farm has picked up share in the last couple of years in which their capital position to do that, which meets their objectives.”

Allstate notes State Farm has gained market share over the past couple of years, consistent with its objectives.

“Progressive is a really strong competitor in auto. They have great capabilities. I expect them to stay strong in auto.”

Allstate's CEO characterizes Progressive as a strong, well-capable auto-insurance competitor expected to remain strong, a positive read-through for Progressive's competitive position.

“Over time, they -- progressive kept driving up their spending. And so we get to 2019, and we're like -- you know what, like we could keep pouring money at Esurance, and we're never going to have the brand Allstate has.”

Allstate cites Progressive's continually rising direct-channel ad spend as a key reason it retired the Esurance brand in favor of investing directly in the Allstate brand for direct sales.

“when we started that, GEICO was spending maybe, I don't know, maybe it was $750 million or $1 billion.”

Allstate's CEO recalls that GEICO's direct-channel advertising spend around 2011 was roughly $750 million to $1 billion, motivating Allstate's own direct-to-consumer investment via the Esurance brand.

“Certainly, GEICO is all direct other than a small little piece of their agency business to kind of build out and progress is a good half direct and we're not quite there.”

Allstate's CEO characterizes GEICO's distribution model as almost entirely direct-to-consumer, contrasting it with Allstate's still-developing direct channel mix.

“in particular, State Farm is struggling given their losses there. And so as they have to restrict the amount of business, it will impact our audit.”

Allstate's CEO says State Farm's homeowners losses in California are forcing it to restrict new business, which Allstate views as a competitive opening as it works to grow its own California presence.