ShareThisIt's like adding insult to injury. Hail, tornado or fire damages your home, and you're left to deal with the mess and hiring contractors to finish the job ASAP. After expenses mount, you shouldn't have to also spend time fighting an insurance company that refuses to pay, pays a pittance or delays payment, sometimes for years, until you give up in frustration.
But that's becoming a more common scenario, Jay Feinman says in his new book, "Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It" (Penguin Group, $26).
Even though you might have been paying about $800 per year (the average homeowner's premium) for a decade or longer without a claim, the insurance company's main objective today isn't to protect you -- it's to protect its profits, Feinman said.
In 2007, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) looked at claims-settlement practices, treatment of policyholders after natural disasters, profit and other factors and recommended that consumers avoid Allstate if at all possible. According to the Fight Bad-faith Insurance Companies Web site (www.badfaithinsurance.org), the top worst "hall of shame" companies are the Hartford, State Farm, Allstate and Berkshire Hathaway. The "hall of fame" listing companies with the best good-faith practices includes Amica, Chubb, Allianz and Coventry Health. In its September 2009 issue, Consumer Reports surveyed homeowners and found that Amica, USAA and Chubb had better-than-average claims service. Farmers, Allstate and Travelers were ranked worse than average for claims handling.
No consumer knows for sure how an insurance company will respond to major claims, but Feinman recommends buying a notebook immediately after the disaster and taking notes on all conversations with the insurance company, including the date, names of persons spoken to, their comments and your comments. If you have to hire a lawyer later, a judge will find a documented case more believable, he said.
Other recommendations in the book: Adjusters typically are not the people with power to change your claim. You have to keep moving up the hierarchy to the adjuster's supervisor, the supervisor's manager, the regional claims vice president and the regional vice president. To be the most effective, state the facts -- don't whine.
It's possible that to get payment for a large claim you will need a lawyer who specializes in insurance. To find one, try the SuperLawyers site (www.superlawyers.com). Put "insurance dispute" in the search field. Ask lawyers about their experience with the type of claim you have and the number of clients they have represented with similar claims.
(E-mail John Ewoldt at jewoldt(at)startribune.com. For more stories, visit scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit Minneapolis Star Tribune
