Personal Injury Law

AAJ: Allstate Worst Insurance Company in America

By Steve Klearman

The American Association for Justice (AAJ) released a report on the top ten worst insurance companies in America, based on an investigation of court documents, SEC and FBI records, news, and testimony of former insurance agents and adjusters. According to the article, Allstate's "concerted efforts to put profits over policyholders" propelled the company to the top of the list of the country's worst insurance companies.

The report paints a dismal picture of Allstate:

According to CEO Thomas Wilson, Allstate's mission is clear: "our obligation is to earn a return for our shareholders." Unfortunately, that dedication to shareholders has come at the expense of policyholders. The company that publicly touts its "good hands" approach privately instructs agents to employ a "boxing gloves" strategy against its own policyholders.1 In the words of former Allstate adjuster Jo Ann Katzman, "We were told to lie by our supervisors--it's tough to look at people and know you're lying."

The name of the game is deny, delay, defend--do anything, in fact, to avoid paying claims. For companies like Allstate, there are corporate training manuals explaining how to avoid payments, portable fridges awarded to adjusters who deny the most claims, and pizza for parties to shred documents.

AAJ's complete top ten:

1. Allstate
2. Unum
3. AIG
4. State Farm
5. Conseco
6. WellPoint
7. Farmers
8. UnitedHealth
9. Torchmark
10. Liberty Mutual

Check out the full report

Full post as published by Reno Personal Injury Lawyer on August 19, 2008 (boomark / email).