Allstate to Offer Insurance for Autos in Mass.

Allstate Insurance Co. wants to start selling car insurance in Massachusetts beginning this fall after a 20-year absence in the state.

The nation's second-largest auto insurer, which yesterday filed proposed rates and policy forms requiring Division of Insurance approval, has targeted a Nov. 2 start.

The "You're in Good Hands" company is the 11th new insurer to apply to enter the Massachusetts car insurance market since the state introduced so-called managed competition in April 2008. Progressive jumped into the market last year.

Geico started selling its car insurance to Bay Staters yesterday, after announcing its intentions in March. And Pennsylvania's Harleysville Insurance is expected to start operating locally this summer.

"The new changes that Massachusetts policymakers have enacted allow for much more of a competitive landscape here," said Brett Ludwig, spokesman for Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate. "We think it's a good time to get back into the market."

Allstate stopped selling car insurance in Massachusetts in the late 1980s. "It was such an uncompetitive market that we weren't able to profitably run the business," Ludwig said.

The insurer plans to initially allow Massachusetts consumers to buy insurance through its Web site, 1-800-ALLSTATE, and Allstate agents in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. But its goal is to set up Allstate offices in the Bay State, Ludwig said.

- dgoodison@bostonherald.com

Originally published by By DONNA GOODISON.

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