Seaview, would you please cite where you obtain your information, and your professional background/experience in insurance? I'm in the industry, and take issue with your statements, for they are not factual from my experience- and clearly, your doom and gloom rhetoric has not been the experience of other post respondents.
Hopefully you're not a troll, and have just had a bad personal experience.
Pau,
What specifically do you have an issue with?
Everything I said can be backed up by personal experience, court cases or fines involving misbehavior of insurance companies (at the bottom).
First, let's put the personal stuff aside. I am not accusing you of anything other than being a fine person and a gentleman and I am not a troll.
Yes, I've had good and bad experience with insurance companies. But the number soften don't add up, and insurance is just a matter of numbers and risk tolerance. You pay a premium and expect to be protect for what you've agreed upon in the policy documents. You don't expect the have to hire legal to have the company make good on it's promises, nor go without reasonable claims paid promptly. I find, too often, that there's a fight on my hands.
What's reasonable risk tolerance for some may not be for others. There's always a price, or terms or exclusions that no one would pay for in a policy. Let's say the premium for your $100K boat was $50K, you'd probably not buy. So each of us has to determine what premium is worth being protected from a possible loss, and how "risky" of a boater we are.
For example, I decided I'd buy insurance on my new trawler this year for two reasons. The first, is that I'm a high risk operator until I get more experience and my wife is in the same boat (pun intended). Even with training, which we are doing, we still have high risk. And we will be spending a lot more time on the boat (exposure), and the premiums are really low. It's the second one I've insured ....ever, and the other insured boat that I'm involved in has partners, which is higher risk.
Will I have to fight my company... hope not, and they do enjoy one of the best ratings.
Way back when I had businesses and a lot of property, most of it was insured and there seem to always be an issue. A few claims were paid fine, but a lot were just a hassle. I don't have a lot of activities now, but still some properties. Last week I get a letter from my agent telling me I have to get some equipment removed from the back yard of a tenant occupied home. WFT? They had to go into the yard, through a fence to see it, and it had nothing to do with risk or insurance. I call the agent and told her I wanted to speed with the person at the insurance company that authorized this. They wouldn't talk to me. My agent suggested to just take a picture of a different part of the yard and send it in showing the equipment gone. I wouldn't do that. I made a stink and insisted to talk with them. She called me back and said the company admitted wrong doing and sorry about the inconvenience. What? A year ago I was denied a claim for a sewer backing up causing water damage. The denied the claim and we fought back and forth for several months. They then insisted that I fix the damage, provide proof to them at my expense. I told them to FO fired them and got a different policy and filed another one of my many complaints with the insurance commissioner. That same company, Citizens of Florida still owes me unearned premium from a home I sold 10 years ago. State Farm is one of the worst. I dropped them 20 years ago, insuring a large block of properties. They couldn't do anything right, but the agent and I remain good friends. All State is a bad one, too. They denighed a claim saying the premium wasn't paid. I sent them a copy of the cancelled check with the policy number on it (and copied the insurance commissioner). Great bookkeeping! I could go on and on.
You can see why I don't like insurance companies. For the most part, they stink. Sure, they've graciously paid a few claims without fuss. And there's some great agents, I have several good friends that are agents, and you wouldn't believe some of the stories from them.
Sure, there is a reason to be insurance, and for some folks, they got to be covered for everything.
Now, liability insurance that protects one against their acts of operating the boat could be a good thing for most of us. The majority of us will never use it, but if we did something stupid and there was serious injury or death, the financial loss would be hard to recover from.
And there's a lot of things that insurance won't cover, so a reason to be careful.
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Bad insurance companies:
Dover, DE – The Delaware Department of Insurance now publishes fines imposed by Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart against insurance companies who violate state insurance regulations.
Commissioner Stewart fined the following companies a total of $83,300 during the first quarter of 2016:
Name Fine Date
21st Century $27,500.00 1/21/2016
Teachers Insurance Co. $25,000.00 2/04/2016
Homesite Insurance Co. $15,000.00 3/17/2016
Jackson National Life Ins. Co. $3,800.00 3/22/2016
Progressive Direct $5,000.00 3/03/2016
Progressive Northern $7,000.00 3/04/2016
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Office of the Insurance Commissioner of Washington State revealed that it had fined American Pet Insurance Co. (APIC) $150,000 for violating numerous state regulations.
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To identify the worst insurance companies for consumers, researchers at the American Association for Justice (AAJ) undertook a comprehensive investigation of thousands of court documents, SEC and FBI records, state insurance department investigations and complaints, news accounts from across the country, and the testimony and depositions of former insurance agents and adjusters. Our final list includes companies across a range of different insurance fields, including homeowners and auto insurers, health insurers, life insurers, and disability insurers. This report sites many areas where insurers unfairly cheater their customers. Included are Allstate, Unum, AIG, StateFarm, Conseco, WellPoint, Farmers, UnitedHealth, Torchmark, and Liberty Mutual. The details in this report reveal several times where the insured was cheated by attempts to not pay claims nor treat their clients according to good faith dealings.
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State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell
Boicourt v. Amex Assurance Co.
Matson Terminals v. Home Insurance Co
David Clayton v. United Services Automobile Association
Vann v. The Travelers Insurance Company
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OLYMPIA, Wash. – Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler issued fines in September totaling $13,000 against insurance companies, agents and brokers who violated state insurance regulations.