Allstate ranked as the worst insurer for consumers, according to the results of an investigation conducted by the American Association for Justice (AAJ) that analyzed thousands of legal documents and financial filings.
The AAJ, formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, claim that their rankings "show a distinct pattern of insurance industry greed amongst 10 companies that refuse to pay just claims, employ hardball tactics against policyholders, reward executives with extravagant salaries, and raise premiums while hoarding excessive profits."
"While Allstate publicly touts its 'good hands' approach, it has instead privately instructed its agents to employ a 'boxing gloves' strategy against its policyholders," said AAJ CEO Jon Haber. "Allstate ducks, bobs, and weaves to avoid paying claims to increase its profits."
In their report, the AAJ claims that Allstate contracted with consulting giant McKinsey & Co. in the mid-1990s to systematically force consumers to accept lowball claims or face its "boxing gloves," an aggressive strategy designed to deny claims at any cost.
The AAJ said that thousands of court documents, materials uncovered from litigation and discovery, testimony, complaints filed with state insurance departments, SEC and FBI records, and news accounts were reviewed to compile the rankings and statistics.
Allstate representatives questioned the motives of the AAJ.
"We're not surprised we're being targeted by the trial and personal injury lawyers, because Allstate has been at the forefront of the fight of insurance fraud and the effort to resist unreasonable demands made by lawyers," said Mike Siemienas, a spokesperson for Allstate. "The personal injury lawyers behind this report provide no support for their statements other than decade-old recycled allegations that have been shown to be without merit in courts of law."
The entire AAJ report is available at www.justice.org.
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