If there wasn't already enough tension between Allstate agentsand the company, a memo about a glitch in agents' compensation mayhave added some more fuel to the fire.

On Feb. 10, agents were informed through an internalcommunication that there were problems with calculating theirannual bonuses and incorrect information was reported on someagency owners' tax forms.

The company says in a statement that it is re-running the report“with additional checks and balances to ensure accuracy.”

The company anticipates agents will have their bonus paymentsdelayed until Feb. 23, but under contract, Allstate has until March15 to make the payments.

Perhaps more annoying for an agent who has filed his or hertaxes, information on Form 1099-MISC reported incorrect incomeinformation related to two incentive programs for some agencyowners and processed income information to the wrongagent-identification numbers for other agency owners.

Allstate says it will issue corrected forms and pay for anyamended returns upon the agent's request. “We regret any confusion,inconvenience or anxiety these recent process errors may havecaused amongst some of our agency owners,” the company says.

The issue affects 4,700 agency owners, out of a total of11,500.

While expressing reluctance to exacerbate what is in somequarters an already contentious relationship between agents and thecompany, Jim Fish, executive director of the National Associationof Professional Allstate Agents, says the association does plan toask whether any agency-owner terminations took place based oninaccurate information aggregated by Allstate's systems.

A spokeswoman for Allstate says overall, its information iscorrect and that the errors related only to the bonus payments. Sheadds that the termination of any agent is a very long and involvedprocess and would not be based solely upon the aggregated data.