Check Your Insurance Before You Need It

The insurance socially responsibility test. Subject your insurance to it even if you don’t care about “social responsibility.”

What is that test?

Socially responsible insurance companies pay their claims. One of insurance company’s most important implicit social agreements is helping people when the chips are down. Just ask the people caught up in Katrina or Sandy. Insurance companies play a pivotal role after disasters.

As part of financial planning, planners routinely look at the financial health of insurance companies to make sure we’re recommending sound insurance companies to clients.

But it makes sense to look deeper, even if you don’t give a hoot about socially responsible investing. The key question to ask: how do customers rate insurance companies on their claims experience?

Turns out, this information is readily available. Just look at the ratings on JDPower.com. The customer satisfaction numbers for claims experience are right there. This link points to homeowners insurance. Auto insurance is here.

The inspiration for this blog post came from the work of Ann C. Logue in Socially Responsible Investing for Dummies. Until I write my own book, that’s the one I recommend. Thanks!