Top 10 Worst Insurance Companies – New Report From the American Association for Justice

Insurance giant Allstate leads the top 10 list of worst insurers in the country, according to a comprehensive investigation of thousands of legal documents and financial filings by the American Association for Justice (AAJ), a national trial lawyers group. According to this article, the group based this top 10 list on what it calls “a distinct pattern of industry greed” among these insurance companies that do what they can to avoid paying claims, play hardball with consumers and put profits over the welfare of their policy holders.

According to AAJ’s chief executive officer Jon Haber, Allstate “publicly touts its ‘good hands’ approach” but has privately instructed its agents to adopt more of a “boxing gloves” strategy against policyholders, making it near impossible for them to get claims paid. As for Allstate, the strategy is a gold mine – to increase profits, expand salaries for their executives — all at the expense of its suffering policy holders. The other top 10 worst insurers include: Unum, AIG, State Farm, Conesco, WellPoint Health, Farmers, Torchmark and Liberty Mutual – in that order from 2 to 10.

I commend our friends at the AAJ for releasing this valuable report and putting pressure on insurance companies to do their jobs. As a personal injury lawyer that is constantly working to help victims of auto accidents, I know how tough the process of negotiating with an insurance company can be. Be it medical insurance or auto insurance, if you have a claim stemming from an auto accident, you are in for a significant challenge.

Insurance companies are adopting more of a “hardball” approach to claims, systematically denying rather than approving them. They’re hiring high-powered consultants to increase profits and that rarely works to the consumer’s advantage. The fact is, insurance company ads tout that they are working for you, however, their high paid consultants have shown them ways to make more money by systematically denying and delaying all claims, regardless of validity.

My law partner, Brian Chase, and I are proud to be members of the American Association for Justice.