Auto insurer to return to Mass. amid market reform

An insurer is returning to Massachusetts as the state opens its auto insurance market to greater competition.

Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group says one of the companies it owns, Peerless Insurance, intends to resume doing business in Massachusetts next spring after a 20-year absence.

New Hampshire-based Peerless sells insurance in seven states and plans to add auto and home coverage in Massachusetts. It had left the market in 1988.

It's the first auto insurer to announce plans to return to the state since Insurance Commissioner Nonnie Burnes issued rules last month on the planned switch to a so-called "managed competition" market.

Not counting Peerless, 19 insurers write auto insurance policies in Massachusetts. That's far fewer than in most states where the market has traditionally set rates, rather than regulators. (AP)