For evidence: note my user name at the bottom of the sponsoring law firm's website.
I see that some claims managers and other low-level insurance workers have arrived for damage control. For what it's worth, I'm a licensed insurance broker. I know what it's like to believe in your product, and to tell yourself you're doing good.
Here's what you need to know:
This is inflammatory, yes, but nothing is inaccurate. All the numbers are sourced from company reports. I spent way too many hours tracking this stuff down. The earnings are estimated based on industry averages when no earning numbers are available. The reports of bad behaviors are accurate as well, and just the tip of the iceberg. I suggest you search for "Ten Worst Insurance Companies" and read the AAJ report referenced frequently in this app. It's disgusting.
The point of this app was to say "look: these companies earn BILLIONS of dollars in interest, none of which is ever sent to customers. Instead of using their massive interest earnings (which is the only earnings shown by this app, not premiums) to offset the cost of premiums, or to make slightly more generous settlements, the insurance companies STILL engage in despicable practices to protect even meager dollar amounts."
Back when I started out I used to believe that insurance companies were doing their best to help people. But the truth is that insurance companies employees do their best, while the companies themselves are concerned only with profits. Period. That profit isn't earned through your monthly insurance premium. It's earned by investing money for as long as possible and keeping the interest. The more money invested, the more interest earned.
Warren Buffet called it "float" and said it was like "having your cake and eating it too." Here's some of what he said about it:
The source of our insurance funds is “float,” which is money that doesn’t belong to us but that we temporarily hold. Most of our float arises because (1) premiums are paid upfront though the service we provide – insurance protection – is delivered over a period that usually covers a year and; (2) loss events that occur today do not always result in our immediately paying claims...
Float is wonderful – if it doesn’t come at a high price. Its cost is determined by underwriting results, meaning how the expenses and losses we will ultimately pay compare with the premiums we have received. When an underwriting profit is achieved – as has been the case at Berkshire in about half of the 38 years we have been in the insurance business – float is better than free. In such years, we are actually paid for holding other people’s money.
In other words, as long as the underwriting teams can keep your claims below the company's income from premiums, the company is making bank by hanging onto your cash. The longer it hangs on to that cash, the better.
The insurance companies have every reason to deny, delay, and reject claims. Even as they instruct their claims managers to pay out on simple property damage claims, they fight for YEARS on cases where somebody is injured.
Expand that delay tactic to every single client and you've suddenly got 2 or 3 years of interest earned before you have to give people back the money they've paid in through their premiums.
Yes, insurance companies must keep a certain amount of cash on hand to pay for unforeseen underwriting expenses. That's an obvious fact of life. But when a company like Berkshire Hathaway (Geico) earns 516 dollars every second in interest alone, there's no good reason why some of that interest shouldn't be used to make settlements and claims more quick, and more generous, without bringing attorneys into the picture.
Insurance companies are never our friends.
Obviously, my conclusions are my own opinions, but the site presents the facts for you to judge for yourself.