*The blog post below was written and shared in June 2009.
In order to help consumers before they have to file a claim, researchers at the American Association for Justice (AAJ) did a thorough investigation to determine the 10 worst insurance companies in America.
AAJ studied court documents, SEC and FBI records, state insurance department investigations and complaints, news accounts from across the country, and the
testimony and depositions of former insurance agents and adjusters.
To no surprise to anyone litigating cases over the past 10 years, Allstate was rated the Worst Insurance Company in America by a longshot.
Allstate’s organized and settled plan to put profits over policyholders gave Allstate the title. According to CEO Thomas Wilson, Allstate’s mission is clear: “our obligation is to earn a return for our shareholders.” The “good hands” people actually teaches its claims agents to employ a “boxing gloves” strategy against its own policyholders.
A former Allstate adjuster Jo Ann Katzman said, “We were told to lie by our supervisors—it’s tough to look at people and know you’re lying.”
Allstate's plan for profit:
a. Get the Premiums:
1. Hire your hometown neighbor that you know and trust to sell insurance to you. I personally know and like our local agents and they are good people doing nothing wrong. My wife has relatives in another state that sells Allstate insurance.
2. Use a well liked and soft spoken actor to encourage you to buy insurance from them because they are "the good hands people".
b. Delay and Deny claims
1. Instead of paying small claims, try to find anything to deny or delay the claim. Wear down claimants.
2. Don't use the same local agents who know you, rather use teams of adjusters, most of whom you don't know, to deny and delay your claim to wear you down while they hold your money.
3. Drag out small claims by refusing to settle to make it unprofitable for attorneys to represent the victims. Once attorneys are out the way, Allstate can bully those making claims.
c. Hold down jury awards once case gets to court
1. Participate in Tort Reform campaign by telling potential jurors through ads that fraud, frivolous suits and high verdicts are causing premiums to rise.
2. Just in case potential jurors research for themselves and determine that the tort reform story is a lie, Allstate supports big business politicians who will pass laws to make it harder to get fair verdicts and overrule you and your neighbors when you determine what is fair...
No wonder they come in at number 1 as the worst Insurance company in America.
The entire list is listed below.
The Ten Worst Insurance Companies
1. Allstate
2. Unum
3. AIG
4. State Farm
5. Conseco
6. WellPoint
7. Farmers
8. UnitedHealth
9. Torchmark
10. Liberty Mutual
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