Comments on: The Worst Insurance Companies in America Revealed! http://www.zifflaw.com/NYInjuryLawBlog/the-worst-insurance-companies-in-america-revealed Legal Answers from Lawyers Who Know New York & Pennsylvania Law Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:03:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jim Reed http://www.zifflaw.com/NYInjuryLawBlog/the-worst-insurance-companies-in-america-revealed/comment-page-1#comment-29541 Jim Reed Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:24:46 +0000 http://www.zifflaw.com/NYInjuryLawBlog/?p=267#comment-29541 Walter: While I personally don't know anything about the Frankenmuth Insurance Co., I can tell you that I have seen enough insurance company shenanigans over the years that NOTHING that some insurance companies do could surprise me!! Thanks, Jim _________________________________________ James B. Reed, Esq. Personal Injury & Malpractice Attorney Ziff Law Firm, LLP 303 William St., Elmira, NY 14901 Tel. (607) 733-8866 Fax. (607) 732-6062 Toll Free 1-800-943-3529 mailto:jreed@zifflaw.com http://www.zifflaw.com Walter:

While I personally don’t know anything about the Frankenmuth Insurance Co., I can tell you that I have seen enough insurance company shenanigans over the years that NOTHING that some insurance companies do could surprise me!!

Thanks, Jim
_________________________________________
James B. Reed, Esq.
Personal Injury & Malpractice Attorney
Ziff Law Firm, LLP
303 William St., Elmira, NY 14901
Tel. (607) 733-8866 Fax. (607) 732-6062
Toll Free 1-800-943-3529
mailto:jreed@zifflaw.com http://www.zifflaw.com

]]> By: Walter http://www.zifflaw.com/NYInjuryLawBlog/the-worst-insurance-companies-in-america-revealed/comment-page-1#comment-29535 Walter Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:15:50 +0000 http://www.zifflaw.com/NYInjuryLawBlog/?p=267#comment-29535 If you really want to investigate and make public an insurance company that should be on your “worst” list, look at Frankenmuth Insurance and their subsidiaries Ansur America and Patriot. Frankenmuth has about 375,000 in direct written premium so this is not a little company. They operate in several states. Go to : http://www.michigan.gov/wca/0,1607,7-191-26920---,00.html which is the Workers’ Compensation Agency in Michigan – Look at the notice of dispute report for 2007 & 2008 – Frankenmuth disputes 99% of its WC claims. Compare that to all the other companies on the list. Then look at the pay lag reports – when and if FI pays a claim, its lag time is ridiculous. People are starving and this company is hiding behind a “dispute” on every claim. Their personal lines “customer satisfaction surveys” are purposely slanted. They only send them to homeowners whose claims have been paid without any areas of contention so that they can tell their agents that the rating of satisfaction is amazingly high. There is no validation or audit of this process to insure integrity to my knowledge. Also, every January, the Frankenmuth executive staff holds its annual board of directors meetings. The meeting typically takes 3-4 hours. Frankenmuth holds its meetings at places like the one and only Palmila resort in Cabo San Lucas or at the Winn (two years in a row) in Vegas. Not only does the company fund the board members trips, but they all bring spouses and stay for 5-7 days. Lavish entertainment, first class accommodations and meals are experienced by them all. It is amazing to have this type of ridiculous spending and then have the audacity to complain that they can’t charge their customers more money which they have done in a public letter to Michigan Insurance Commissioner Ken Ross in 2009 asking for continued use of Insurance Credit Scoring as a methodology in charging premiums. They lavish their agents with tickets in suites to MSU football and basketball however more often, its one agent and the CEO and all HIS family members. While most companies spend money on agency incentive trips, they don’t spend 5 million for one week as Frankenmuth did in its incentive trip to the Greek Islands in 2008. The prior CEO and his wife also insisted on taking all incentive trips in advance to see that everything would be satisfactory for the agents. They had a high price travel agent doing this for them so his travel was nothing more than guise to have extravagant vacations compliments of the policyholders. It is ludicrous for this company who was just a negative outlook by AM Best to whine about not having enough premium dollars when they spend it on themselves in such lavish ways. The attorney general has been asked to investigate the corporate malfeasance and conflicts of interest that occur at the very top level of this company. They’ve frozen employees wages; the pension plan was just frozen. Hiring is frozen yet they take their board of directors on weeklong exotic trips with spouses BEFORE the board meeting. This is clearly a conflict of interest meant to sway the board in to giving them whatever they want. They should be exposed to their policyholders and the public. If you really want to investigate and make public an insurance company that should be on your “worst” list, look at Frankenmuth Insurance and their subsidiaries Ansur America and Patriot. Frankenmuth has about 375,000 in direct written premium so this is not a little company. They operate in several states.
Go to : http://www.michigan.gov/wca/0,.....2;,00.html which is the Workers’ Compensation Agency in Michigan – Look at the notice of dispute report for 2007 & 2008 – Frankenmuth disputes 99% of its WC claims. Compare that to all the other companies on the list. Then look at the pay lag reports – when and if FI pays a claim, its lag time is ridiculous. People are starving and this company is hiding behind a “dispute” on every claim.
Their personal lines “customer satisfaction surveys” are purposely slanted. They only send them to homeowners whose claims have been paid without any areas of contention so that they can tell their agents that the rating of satisfaction is amazingly high. There is no validation or audit of this process to insure integrity to my knowledge.
Also, every January, the Frankenmuth executive staff holds its annual board of directors meetings. The meeting typically takes 3-4 hours. Frankenmuth holds its meetings at places like the one and only Palmila resort in Cabo San Lucas or at the Winn (two years in a row) in Vegas. Not only does the company fund the board members trips, but they all bring spouses and stay for 5-7 days. Lavish entertainment, first class accommodations and meals are experienced by them all. It is amazing to have this type of ridiculous spending and then have the audacity to complain that they can’t charge their customers more money which they have done in a public letter to Michigan Insurance Commissioner Ken Ross in 2009 asking for continued use of Insurance Credit Scoring as a methodology in charging premiums.

They lavish their agents with tickets in suites to MSU football and basketball however more often, its one agent and the CEO and all HIS family members. While most companies spend money on agency incentive trips, they don’t spend 5 million for one week as Frankenmuth did in its incentive trip to the Greek Islands in 2008. The prior CEO and his wife also insisted on taking all incentive trips in advance to see that everything would be satisfactory for the agents. They had a high price travel agent doing this for them so his travel was nothing more than guise to have extravagant vacations compliments of the policyholders.
It is ludicrous for this company who was just a negative outlook by AM Best to whine about not having enough premium dollars when they spend it on themselves in such lavish ways.
The attorney general has been asked to investigate the corporate malfeasance and conflicts of interest that occur at the very top level of this company.
They’ve frozen employees wages; the pension plan was just frozen. Hiring is frozen yet they take their board of directors on weeklong exotic trips with spouses BEFORE the board meeting. This is clearly a conflict of interest meant to sway the board in to giving them whatever they want. They should be exposed to their policyholders and the public.

]]> By: Desera http://www.zifflaw.com/NYInjuryLawBlog/the-worst-insurance-companies-in-america-revealed/comment-page-1#comment-28067 Desera Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:21:30 +0000 http://www.zifflaw.com/NYInjuryLawBlog/?p=267#comment-28067 I too agree they dropped their promise a long time ago,seems like to me they haven't lost their spot still #1 of {fraud}. UM/UIM; what happen when u become disable at 30yrs of age like myself. Allstate never admit. Cazares came forward & people should be very careful on who we trust w/ our life. I too agree they dropped their promise a long time ago,seems like to me they haven’t lost their spot still #1 of {fraud}. UM/UIM; what happen when u become disable at 30yrs of age like myself. Allstate never admit. Cazares came forward & people should be very careful on who we trust w/ our life.

]]> By: AdamGee http://www.zifflaw.com/NYInjuryLawBlog/the-worst-insurance-companies-in-america-revealed/comment-page-1#comment-2216 AdamGee Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:34:30 +0000 http://www.zifflaw.com/NYInjuryLawBlog/?p=267#comment-2216 Thanks so much for the kind words, Joan. We wanted to make this information available to people so they can make informed decisions about which insurance company they will do business with. Ordinary people still have power over big corporations through the power of the purse strings. If enough people choose to shop elsewhere, these companies will be forced to change their tactics. Thanks so much for the kind words, Joan. We wanted to make this information available to people so they can make informed decisions about which insurance company they will do business with. Ordinary people still have power over big corporations through the power of the purse strings. If enough people choose to shop elsewhere, these companies will be forced to change their tactics.

]]> By: Joan Hyde http://www.zifflaw.com/NYInjuryLawBlog/the-worst-insurance-companies-in-america-revealed/comment-page-1#comment-2213 Joan Hyde Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:18:44 +0000 http://www.zifflaw.com/NYInjuryLawBlog/?p=267#comment-2213 Everyone knows how hard it is to go up against the insurance companies, but this is the first time I have had anyone list the worst of them. It was very enlightening for me and beneficial as well. I do have one of them for Medical through work but I can't do anything about that. You have just written what I already thought. Thank you for the posts. I learn something new everytime you send one. Everyone knows how hard it is to go up against the insurance companies, but this is the first time I have had anyone list the worst of them. It was very enlightening for me and beneficial as well. I do have one of them for Medical through work but I can’t do anything about that. You have just written what I already thought. Thank you for the posts. I learn something new everytime you send one.

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