Survey on West Coast Life Insurance Company
We came across a web site (freeadvice.com), which has an online survey of visitors regarding the West Coast Life Insurance Company. As expected and as we have been reporting on this site, the unsatisfied customers are a major part of all survey takers. However, what surprised us was the result of the following question: How do you rate the claims handling and fairness of any settlement? As seen below, the “very unsatisfied” answer got ALL (100%) of all responses to this question. We don’t know how long this answer will last after West Coast Life finds out about it, so we provide a static picture as well as a link below.
West Coast Life and Protective Life Insurance Companies’ Complaint Indices for 2009 in Colorado
The Insurance Division of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) has published Complaint Index information for life insurance companies operating in Colorado for the latest year available (2009). The Complaint Index is calculated “by dividing [a] company’s share of complaints by its share of premium on a line-specific basis”. The West Coast Life Insurance Company and its sister organization, Protective Life Insurance Company, had Complaint Indices of 0.74 and 1.53, respectively. We analyzed data provided by the DORA web site by sorting the companies based on their Complaint Indices. Based on this analysis, the West Coast Life Insurance Company was ranked 80th and the Protective Life Insurance Company was ranked 94th. This means that 79 other life insurers had lower (better) Complaint Indices than West Coast Life. West Coast Life Insurance and Protective Life Insurance are sister companies under the umbrella of the Protective Life Corporation.
We welcome comments, suggestions, and corrections by our readers and the companies involved.
West Coast Life Insurance Company and Complaints
On its web site, the West Coast Life Insurance Company touts its so-called “excellent reputation in the insurance industry amongst the brokerage community and, of course policyholders”. Note that it is “of course policyholders” and not just plain “policyholders”- of course. On its “Company” page, WCL also lists the first of its five “Cardinal Principles” as being “focus on the customer”.
But, how do these glowing statements and principles hold up and measure up against some important independent evaluations and assessments? Over the last few weeks, we have been presenting reports on complaint data and rankings by Oregon and California Departments of Insurance (see our earlier posts). The Oregon and California rankings for WCL were 20th and 37th, respectively, among life insurance companies operating in those states for the most recent year’s evaluations. We also first reported in January 2011 on the “F” rating given to West Coast Life Insurance by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) office in the greater San Francisco area (see our earlier posting with link). Note that the BBB rating range is from F to A+.
West Coast Life Insurance Company and its parent company, Protective Life Corporation, are major insurance companies with significant influence. Why have they not yet succeeded in convincing BBB to change its rating? Have they even tried? Do they care about such a rating? How do these independent assessments relate to the “excellent reputation” and “focus on customer” rhetoric? Is there any grade more unambiguous than an “F”?
We once again welcome comments from our readers and fact-based rebuttals by WCL and Protective Life.
