Allstate Insurance Co

Allstate Insurance Co. has agreed to pay $30 million to an estimated 250,000 Californians who were allegedly overcharged for auto and homeowner policies, in a settlement expected to be announced today. The company, though not admitting wrongdoing, also has agreed to pay a $4-million fine to the state Insurance Department.

Allstate said Thursday that it would stop selling new home insurance policies in California and would continue to seek a 12% rate increase for its 900,000 existing customers. The state's third-biggest home insurer announced the cutoff Thursday, saying it needs to better manage the risk of potential losses related to wildfires and fires caused by earthquakes that might sweep the Golden State.

Allstate Corp., the largest publicly traded U.S. home insurer, said its fourth-quarter losses from the October wildfires in California would be as much as $335 million. Overall catastrophe losses for October and November totaled $360 million to $400 million, about $100 million higher than for the entire fourth quarter last year, the Northbrook, Ill.-based insurer said.

Allstate Insurance Co. on Friday filed a request to raise premiums for California homeowners 12.2% -- startling consumer groups and state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, who in June had ordered the company to justify its rates. Whereas rivals said Friday that they planned to cut premiums, Allstate said it needed to charge more to cover the escalating threat from natural catastrophes.

Allstate Insurance Co. filed suit Friday to get more than 100 cars owned by its policyholders out from behind the locked gates of M2 Collision Care Centers, a chain of California body shops that is being liquidated at the behest of creditors. The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, calls for CMA Business Credit Services to release vehicles owned by Allstate customers and seeks unspecified damages. Burbank-based CMA took control of M2 Automotive Inc.'

The venerable Indianapolis Motor Speedway has gone commercial. The Brickyard 400, the stock car race that annually attracts the largest audience in NASCAR's Nextel Cup season, has been renamed the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. The insurance company announced Thursday that it had signed a multiyear sponsorship deal with IMS, and that it had signed another multiyear deal to be NASCAR's official insurance sponsor.

Allstate Corp., the second-biggest U.S. auto and home insurer, lost a U.S. Supreme Court bid to limit a lawsuit claiming it used customers' credit records to overcharge blacks and Latinos for home and auto insurance. The justices rejected Allstate's effort to throw out a claim that the use of credit histories to set rates had a disproportionate effect on minorities, even if it wasn't intentional.

Bungling by fire and police agencies here allowed last October's Cedar fire to spread "into a wildfire of epic proportion," one of the largest insurance companies in the state has charged in a claim filed against three public agencies. Allstate Corp.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles on Thursday revoked Allstate Insurance Co.'s electronic access to confidential drivers' records, after finding in a nine-month investigation that the company had violated state confidentiality rules 131 times. DMV Director Steven Gourley said he would ask the state attorney general's office to seek fines against Allstate before its access would be restored.

California insurance regulators plan to sanction Allstate Insurance Co. for allegedly using customers' credit records to set rates and collecting higher auto premiums by pushing agents to alter policyholders' driving mileage. A spokeswoman for state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said Wednesday that the agency already has decided to take action against Allstate for the two alleged violations and is simply waiting for recommendations from its attorneys before proceeding.