ALLSTATE:

According to several investigations that led to thousands of legal documents, Allstate has been found to be the worst insurance company for paying claims. While they publicly appear as the kind and safe option, they are in fact a wolf in sheep’s clothing. They encourage their staff members to go as far as lying and then reward these staff members. They’ll do anything at all and cross every available boundary to avoid paying claims, in the words of American Association for Justice CEO Jon Haber, "While Allstate publicly touts its 'good hands' approach, it has instead privately instructed its agents to employ a 'boxing gloves' strategy against its policyholders, Allstate ducks, bobs and weaves to avoid paying claims to increase its profits."

UNUM:

What makes UNUM an extremely bad life insurance company is that they sell disability insurance. There’s a 2005 story that embodies their evil ways when they denied a woman with multiple sclerosis for three years, claiming that her case was self-reported, completely disregarding the doctors’ evaluation. Over their practices, they later agreed to settle with insurance commissioners from 48 states.

MASS MUTUAL:

Mass mutual is no longer an option to consider for the traditional long-term insurance policy, for the main reason that they are simply too expensive with the introduction of the signature Care 600 traditional LTC policy. This is why from the 28th of January, they will no longer offer long-term insurance, although they will honor all already existing contracts.

AIG:

Being the world’s biggest insurer, AIG was called the “New Enron” which is a result of the billions of dollars in corporate fraud. Their modus operandi is increasing their prices during major disasters. In 2008, AIG paid a number of states $12.5 million after investigators found that the company connived with other insurance brokers to falsify bids that created the facade of a “competitive” market.

CONSECO:

Conseco’s main market is selling long-term care policies, the elderly being their target. Part of its horrific behaviour is to "make it so hard to make a claim, or delay judgement on claims to the extent that people either died or gave up” according to an ex-agent. Former Conseco executives were fined after admitting to filing deceptive financial statements with regulators. Conesco settled with several states and districts in Columbia for its continuous abuse of insurance law in the long-term care business. They had to pay a lot in fines and restitution to clients, and are still facing an additional $10 million if they don’t change their practices.

FARMERS:

Swiss-owned Farmers Insurance Group consistently ranks at the bottom of house owners' satisfaction surveys, and it’s very well deserved. For example, Farmers plotted with other insurance companies to fix pricing, and misled them into thinking they were getting a competing price on policies. This has cost them nearly half a billion dollars in settlement of price-fixing and bid-rigging cases. A case study on how Farmers operate: Ethel Adams, 60, was in a vehicle accident that was so fatal that she was confined to a wheelchair after coming out of a coma. Farmers denied the incident by claiming that the driver acted on road rage. The outcry from this case led to a revise and change of the law of insurance in Washington.

We hope this list of the worst insurance companies helps you and your family make guided decisions in the search for the right insurer.