I once asked our good friend Editilla if we could post his Katrina experience

He wasn’t quite ready then to put it up in bright lights. With the passing of his father Editilla has given the world a glimpse of what it was like in New Orleans after Katrina. His story, like is so many others is incredible:

The last cogent conversation I had with Pop was from a pay phone in the French Market, during the Flood, I think the day or so after the Produce Company had exploded atop a 200 year old toxic waste dump a few blocks from my studio, and sometime after I had fought another man in the dark dark with a two foot long sword. It is hard to say what day it was, but it was so hot……

No cell phone towers within a hundred miles yet these old pay phones that Huey P Long installed still worked. So I called home. After getting the rest of the screaming family off the phones, I began to broach the issue with my father of my last wishes etc.

It took a second, since Pop was still under the impression that “this can’t be happening in America”.. that people wearing a uniform meant something and I just needed to go find them and get out of there.. that our country, his country.. well whateva… Continue reading “I once asked our good friend Editilla if we could post his Katrina experience”

Good Faith v Bad Faith Insurance Practices: Behind the numbers

A short post to illustrate why Sam Friedman’s thesis that more PR spending is needed to turn public perceptions around about P&C insurers is all wet. Not that I’m picking on Sam because the discussion he started is a good one even if I think he has it wrong on why the public holds insurers in such low regard.

First off since I’m a CPA and an investor I know a thing or two about both the Edgar database at the US Securities and Exchange CommissionUS GAAP and financial statements so I’m going to take some shortcuts to bottom line this for everyone. (This is Saturday after all).

Earlier today, we covered the FBIC list of bad faith insurers, which our anecdotal collective experiences as Katrina slabbees well bears out on the property and casualty side. How does the loss ratio of a bad faith insurer such as Allstate compare to the number 1 good faith insurer Chubb? The answer is that cutting corners doesn’t equate profit margin. To wit: Continue reading “Good Faith v Bad Faith Insurance Practices: Behind the numbers”

Suppose you are a consumer who reads slabbed…..

And you’ve read every detail of the aberrant behavior of many insurance companies that do not pay legitimate claims in companies like Allstate, State Farm, USAA and Nationwide. The larger question becomes is there an insurance company that actually treats their customers fairly come claim time?

I don’t know why I haven’t yet linked the FBIC website rankings of insurer claims practices here on Slabbed because they rank not only the worst bad faith insurers but also the ones that treat their customers right. Here is the FBIC’s list of the top 10 bad faith insurers which includes life and health insurers as well as P&C insurers:

1. The Hartford
2. State Farm
3. Allstate
4. Unum (UnumProvident)
5. Berkshire Hathaway
6. CNA
7. American Family (Of pink pig fame)
8. AIG
9. Lumbermens (Kemper)
10. Assurant Health

And the good faith insurers?: Continue reading “Suppose you are a consumer who reads slabbed…..”