Massachusetts Home Insurance Reviews: Complaint Ratings for 25 Top Companies

Does your home insurance company have too many complaints? Will you have a problem placing a claim, or have a valid claim delayed or denied? Do you really know if your company will turn out to be a good or bad experience for you? Most consumers fail to check the complaint records of their insurance companies. This blog posts provide complaint information for the 25 largest home insurance companies in MA, and rates them, from best to worst, based on their combined home insurance complaint records, for the years 2006 through 2010. I also provide the combined complaint information on the rest of the Massachusetts home insurance market, including the MA FAIR plan.

I’m always blogging to help you get the best policies & rates for auto, home, & life insurance, so bookmark or place my website in your favorites!

The Massachusetts Division of Insurance website is the source of my information about market share & complaint information. The Massachusetts homeowners complaint ratio is calculated differently than what I used as the Massachusetts auto insurance complaint ratio.

The homeowners complaint ratio compares each insurance company’s number of home insurance complaints against the company, from 2006 through 2010, as a percentage of the total home insurance complaints for all the home insurance companies in Massachusetts during that period of time, with the company’s home insurance market share in Massachusetts.

For example, if Company X had 10% of the total number of complaints, and 10% of the MA home insurance market share from 2006 through 2010, Company X would have a complaint ratio of 1.00, which is the same as the average complaint record for the entire Massachusetts home insurance market as a whole. Any ratio lower than 1.00 is better than average. The best complaint record has the complaint ratio with the lowest number. Any ratio greater than 1.00 is worse than average. The company with the worst complaint record has the complaint ratio with the highest number.

The complaint ratio is important, because an auto insurance company with many more customers is likely to have a larger number of complaints than a smaller insurance company, because it handles more customer transactions.

For example, a large insurance company may handle 1,000 fire claims, and have 2 valid complaints in regards to how these claims were handled. A smaller home insurance company may have 100 fire claims, and only one valid complaint.

Even though the larger insurance company had double the number of complaints than the smaller home insurance company, the larger company has 1 complaint per 500 claims, and the smaller company has 1 complaint per 100 claims. The larger insurance company really has the better complaint record.

The Massachusetts home insurance complaint ratio considers each company’s percentage of claims with its market share, so you can compare insurance companies complaint records fairly, regardless of a company’s size.

I devised a letter grade system, based on the Massachusetts home insurance complaint ratios I give you for the companies listed below, to make it easy to tell an insurance company with a great or good complaint record, from an insurance company with a poor or average complaint record.

Here is my grading system:

A+ = Insurance companies with complaints 25% or less than the average insurance company.

A = Insurance companies with complaints 50% or less than the average insurance company.

B = Insurance companies with complaints 90% or less than the average insurance company.

C = Insurance companies with complaints from 90% to 110% of the average insurance company.

D = Insurance companies with complaints from 110% to 199% of the average insurance company.

F = Insurance companies with complaints with 200% or more of the average insurance company. More than twice as much as average!

The 25 largest home insurance companies, plus the MA FAIR plan, which insures properties unable to qualify for property insurance anywhere else, cover 90.7% of the Massachusetts home insurance market.

If your insurance company is not on the list below, you will want to find out more about your company’s complaint record, and shop your home insurance to find a company with a better price, coverage, and complaint record.

This is a good idea because the remaining home insurance companies not on this list, have 9.32% of the market, but 18.6% of the complaints from 2006 through 2010. This makes the complaint ratio for the remainder of the market to be 2.00, which I consider an “F” grade.

If your company had no complaints in this time period, it is one of the good eggs among the bad eggs in the remainder of the market, so it may be okay to stay with your company. It is a very good idea to consider other factors, like coverage options, price, and other measures of service, when choosing an insurance company.

For additional information, visit my website to see national complaint ratios, AM Best ratings, & JD Power customer satisfaction ratings on home insurance companies, or to find information regarding auto insurance. If your insurance company is not listed below, I most likely have information about the company on my website.

Insurance companies frequently have several subsidiary home insurance companies, or own another home insurance brand. Sometimes the name of your insurance company does not indicate the parent company owning it. For example, Allstate owns Allstate Insurance Company, but also Encompass Insurance Company of MA, which is sold through independent insurance agents.

Massachusetts combines the complaints for all the subsidiary companies selling home insurance in Massachusetts for the parent company. So, if your home is insured with Fireman’s Fund Insurance, you need to know the company is a part of Allianz Insurance Group, to check the proper complaint ratio.

Here’s my list. Get car & home insurance price quotes from all these companies, to make sure you get the best combination of a low price, proper coverage, & good service.

25 Home Insurance Companies Ranked from Best to Worst by their 2006-2010 Massachusetts Home Insurance Complaint Ratios

1. Allianz Insurance Group = A+ (.20)

2. Chubb & Son Inc. Group = A+ (.21)

3. American Insurance Group (AIG) = A (.30)

4. USAA Group (Available only to active military, their families, and honorably discharged veterans) = A (.35)

5. Amica Mutual Group = A (.36)

6. Barnstable Group = A (.37)

7. Main Street America Group = A (.37)

8. Hanover Insurance Group = A (.41)

9. Harleysville Group = B (.61)

10. Arbella Insurance Group = B (.80)

11. Metropolitan Group = B (.80)

12. Safety Group = B (.81)

13. Quincy Mutual Group = B- (.85)

14. Andover Group = B- (.88)

15. Travelers Group = C+ (.92)

16. Norfolk & Dedham Group = C (.98)

17. Mapfre Insruance Group = C (.99)

18. New London County Group = C (1.04)

19. Plymouth Rock Insurance Group = C- (1.09)

20. Vermont Mutual Group = D+ (1.12)

21. Liberty Mutual Group = D+ (1.13)

FAIR (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements) Plan* = D (1.27)

*The FAIR Plan is a government plan to insure properties insurance companies won’t insure. If you are insured with the FAIR Plan, you should contact several insurance companies or agents to find out if you now qualify for insurance, or if not, when you will qualify for insurance in the private market. In addition to having a poor complaint record, the FAIR Plan usually provides limited coverage.

22. Blackstone Financial Group = D (1.33)

23. Tower Group = D (1.78)

24. Providence Group = D- (1.91)

25. Preferred Mutual Insurance Company = D- (1.95)

Remainder of the Market = F (2.00)

Now you know how the largest Massachusetts home insurance companies are rated for complaints, go and shop your car & home insurance. You can get better rates AND better service!

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Do you have any questions or commentary about these Massachusetts home insurance rankings? Tell me about it. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.