Squeezing the Customer
Despite record-breaking profits, property insurance companies are paying less than promised to their customers when catastrophe strikes, David Dietz and Darrell Preston report in September's Bloomberg Markets. Dietz and Preston's "The Insurance Hoax" reveals that property-casualty insurance companies made $73 billion last year, their highest-ever profit, but routinely only pay policy holders 30-60 percent of the cost of rebuilding a damaged house. Using complaints filed with state insurance offices and court records from Florida, Illinois, California, Mississippi, Tennessee and New Hampshire, Preston and Dietz show how it has become common industry policy to lowball claims. They do a great job of clearly explaining the numbers as well as giving us examples of customers who've suffered through disasters only to find that their insurance company wasn't there for them. www.bloomberg.com/news/marketsmag/mm_0907_story1.html